IN BRIEF
ICG clean chit for
suspicious boat
Customs officials spotted a
suspicious boat lingering at
Mangrol, 12-13 nautical miles
off Junagadh coast, but it was
later given a clean chit by the
Indian Coast Guard on verification.
“In the morning today, we
spotted a boat lingering at
Mangrol, 12-13 nautical miles
of Junagadh coast and alerted
the ICG about its suspicious
movement”, a customs official
said. A team of coast guard officials checked the boat and
later cleared it. – (PTI)

Ready for talks
on all issues:
Krishna to Pak
PTI
NEW DELHI, JULY 19

Responding to Pakistan’s urge
to discuss Kashmir and other issues, India today said it is ready
to talk about everything but the
process has to be a graduated
one as all matters cannot be
“exhausted” in just one sitting.
External Affairs Minister S M
Krishna also replied to his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s contention that
he would not visit India for
“leisure” trip, making it clear
that his invitation was for “serious” discussions.
“We have decided that we
will talk everything but it has
to be graduated talks between
the two Foreign Ministers. We
just cannot in one sitting exhaust all the subjects regardless
of how complex these subjects
are,” he told a news channel.
He was responding to a question on Pakistan’s insistence that
Kashmir and other issues should
be brought on the negotiating
table.

A high speed Sealdah-bound express train tore into the rear of
another killing 63 people and
injuring 92 others at Sainithia
station of Birbhum district, apparently overshooting a signal
in the small hours of the day.
The accident occurred at
around 2 am when the New
Coochbehar-Sealdah Uttarbanga
Express came on the same track
and rammed into the BhagalpurRanchi Vananchal Express which
was just pulling out of platform
number four after having suffered a delay of four to five
hours.
Three rear coaches, including
one luggage van and two unreserved general second class
coaches of the Vananchal Express, were heavily damaged in
the accident in Bolpur-Rampurhat section of the Howrah
division, Eastern Railway officials
said.
An Eastern Railway press release put the death toll at 60
while Birbhum District Magistrate Soumitra Mohan said
63passengers had died. The condition of 36 injured was serious,
he added.
Driver M C Dey, a seasoned

Joint operation
on Princess?
Govt may ask Titan, Madgavkar to work together

Members of the emergency services remove a damaged carriage at the site of the train accident near
Sainthia station in West Bengal's Birbhum district.

‘A’ category loco pilot with a
good safety record, and assistant
driver N K Mandal of the Uttarbanga Express were among the
dead in the accident for which
Railways were not ruling out
sabotage as the cause.
The guard of the Vananchal
Express A Mukherjee also died
in the mishap which was so severe that one of the coaches
mounted the road overbridge
across the tracks in the station,
191 km from Kolkata.

A part of another compartment of the Vananchal Express
split and fell on the road along
the tracks after being thrown
over the bridge.
Railway Minister Mamata
Banerjee said “we have doubts
about the cause of the accident,
the second in West Bengal in
two months.”
Railway Board Chairman
Vivek Sahai, who visited the accident site, told reporters that
it was unusual on the part of

the drivers who neither applied
emergency brake nor made any
attempt to stop the train to
avoid the accident.
“This is very unusual. There
was something wrong with loco
pilots,” he said.
“The brakes were not applied
at all nor the emergency brakes
though the train was running at
a high speed. They (driver and
co-driver) were not even trying
to jump out and found occupying their seats,” Sahai said.

Pak Navy trained Kasab, others: Headley
PTI
NEW DELHI, JULY 19

In yet another indication of the
involvement of Pakistani establishment in the 26/11 Mumbai
attack, LeT operative David
Headley has corroborated the
statement of lone captured terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab that
the terrorists got training from
Pakistan Navy.
During his interrogation,
Kasab confessed that the ten
terrorists, including himself,
who attacked Mumbai received
training of swimming and underwater diving from the Pakistan Navy’s frogmen.
A frogman is someone who

is trained to dive, swim and
combat.
“The role of frogmen was
confirmed by Headley when
the Indian investigators inter-

rogated him in the US last
month,” an official said.
This is being seen as another
clear indicator of the Pakistani
establishment’s involvement in
the planning and execution of
the Mumbai terror attack,
which claimed 168 lives.
Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai had recently said that the
ISI was “literally controlling and
coordinating the (Mumbai) attack from beginning to end”.
Pakistani-American Headley,
currently in American custody,
was interrogated by a team of
National Investigation Agency.
Officials said that the Indian
investigators so far have no

plan to interrogate Headley’s
accomplice Tahawwur Rana, a
Pakistani origin Canadian citizen, as his involvement in the
Mumbai attack conspiracy was
limited to providing finance.
“If necessary we may interrogate Rana also, though we
have no immediate plan to do
so,” an official said.
Headley has also told his interrogators that the Pakistani
intelligence agency had paid
Rs 25 lakh to LeT to purchase
a boat which terrorists used to
travel from Karachi to the Pakistani maritime boundary,
where they hijacked an Indian
fishing boat to reach Mumbai.

SURAJ NANDREKAR
PANJIM, JULY 19

Ambiguity over the award of
contract for the removal of River
Princess continues with the Government now toying with the
idea of asking both the shortlisted bidders – Titan Salvage
and Madgavkar Salvage — to
work jointly on the project.
Out of the 12 bidders, the
State Disaster Management
Company had finalised the two
companies for awarding the contract.
However, Madgavkars have
stated that Titan’s bid is invalid
as it does not fulfil the requirement of the tender.
The company has also threatened to drag the Government
to court if Titan is awarded the
contract.
Director of Tourism, Swapnil
Naik told Herald, the Government has asked for their clarification on two issues – No Cure
No Pay and the disposal of scrap.
“They have asked us time till
July 27”, Naik said.
The officer stated that the
Government is hopeful that the
two companies will sort out the
issue themselves.
“We hope they will reach
some settlement by July 27 as
our aim is to remove the ship,”
he said indicating that the Government wants both the companies to work together on the
project.

Dudu on Facebook
from behind bars?

HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JULY 19

Apparently depicting a weak
functioning of the Government
machinery, it has come to light
that international drug dealer
David Driham aka Dudu is active
on Facebook social networking
website from behind bars.
In judicial remand, Dudu is
in constant touch with his sister,
friends and fiancee via Facebook
chat apparently with or without
the knowledge of jail officials.
“My baby I love you so much,
my fiancee”, Dudu messaged in
the Facebook page written to
Zarine Driham on April 15.
He was lately reassigned to
Vasco sub-jail from the Central
jail at Aguada for his notorious

AK-47s for PSOs
of PC, Pillai

acts against other inmates and
jail authorities.
The account was last updated
on June 18 when the drug dealer
was lodged in Aguada judicial
lock-up. He was arrested in February 2010 when anti-narcotic
sleuths intercepted him near his
house in Siolim with several kilograms of narcotics worth around
Rs 3.81 lakh. He is since then
behind bars.
Meanwhile, his Facebook
page also shows a couple of
messages from his friends back
in Israel. “Come on bro Aba”ah
truth will come and you will be
with us here” Nahari Eyal,
Dudu’s friend from Farzliya, Israel wrote.
“Atonement for you. All miss

you, and keep your fingers
crossed,” Jude Yhudit Azulay, a
photographer based in Ramat
Gen, Israeli writes in.
Dudu’s sister, who frequently
trips Goa also kept in touch with
her brother on Facebook.
Photographs of celebrating
Valentines Day by Dudu with his
fiancé are also prominently displayed on the website.
Inspector General of Prisons
Mihir Vardhan, when asked said
he would investigate the uploads on the social networking
site. “How sure you are that he
himself is doing it? Someone
else may also do it on his behalf ”, Vardhan said giving an indication that either he is sure
enough that Dudu isn’t doing it
or he is not ready to accept the
reality.
Sources in the Aguada jail
have informed that Dudu has
been getting royal treatment
with mobile phones and things
on demand.
Recently a few jail guards
were transferred from Aguada.
Sources informed they provided
him materials like cigarettes and
mobile phone.
Ironically, Dudu has attempted suicide twice during
his near-five month stay in the
jail.

Partner of Madgavkar Salvage,
Anil Madgavkar told Herald that
the proposal for joint operation
has come from the Government.
“The Government has told us
to talk with Titan, who will use
our equipment and manpower.
However, we have learnt that
Titan is not interested in the
proposal”, he stated adding
“Titan has told the Government
to award the contract first and
then they will decide”.
Madgavkar said they (Titan)
just want to hire our equipment
and manpower and we are not
interested in hiring the equipment and manpower “…although we can give a thought
to the idea of sharing the job”.
Reiterating his stand that
Titan bid is invalid, Madgavkar
said, “I don’t understand why
the Government hell bent on
awarding the contract to the
(Continued on page 10)

Tourists robbed
at Old Goa,
Rs 5.58 lakh
booty found
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
OLD GOA, JULY 19

774 panels out of 1423
never met: Opposition
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JULY 19

Since July 2007, the State government has constituted 1423
committees of which, 774 have
never met. This interesting piece
of information was revealed during Question Hour on Monday
as Opposition sought to know
whether working of those committees is monitored.
Mapusa MLA, Francis D’Souza
during “Question Hour” brought
out this issue saying though
1423 committees have been
constituted since July, 2007, 774

committees have never met.
He questioned the purpose
of having so many committees
if they are not monitored.
At this point Leader of the
Opposition Manohar Parrikar
asked Chief Minister, Digambar
Kamat whether he was aware
how many committees were
chaired by him.
“You are chairman of 25 committees and chief secretary
heads about 16 committees”,
Parrikar replied quickly as Kamat
kept mum.
He also sought to know

whether functioning of those
committees was monitored.
“But don’t appoint another committee to just to monitor those
committees”, he remarked.
Of the 222 Government notified committees 32 committees
have never met, he pointed.
There are 196 statutory committees.
Digambar Kamat said, most
of these were village committees
whereas Speaker Pratapsing
Rane suggested that the Government should fix a time-frame
for committees.

A visit to the famed churches at
Old Goa took an unusual turn
for two tourists from Hyderabad
when gold ornaments, cash and
a mobile phone, all worth about
Rs 5.58 lakh, were stolen from
a taxi hired by them on Monday.
However, Old Goa police
acted swiftly and nabbed five
persons from Gujarat near the
Mollem checkpost, after their
vehicle had been identified by
the victims at Old Goa.
According to reports, Kamakshi K S Rajshekara and Chandrakala, both from Banjara Hills
in Hyderabad, had informed Old
Goa police that they were staying at a starred hotel in Canacona and were in the State to
attend a wedding on Monday
night.
Since they were free on Monday afternoon, they had decided
to visit the churches at Old Goa
and had hired a taxi for the purpose.
Both women had left their
gold ornaments, an ATM card,
their air ticket, cash of Rs 20,000
and a mobile phone in the car.
The driver had also accompanied them during their visit to
(Continued on page 10)

UK mom slams police probe into son’s death

PTI
NEW DELHI, JULY 19

HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM JULY 19

Faced with fresh threat from
Maoists, the Government has
enhanced the security of Home
Minister P Chidambaram and
Union Home Secretary Gopal
K Pillai by upgrading the
weapons of his personal security officers.
The decision to upgrade the
weapons of PSOs has been taken
following intelligence inputs
that the Left Wing extremists
may try to attack him, especially
after the killing of top Maoists
leader Azad.

The mysterious death of the
British tourist Stephen Bennett
has revealed the tardy police
probe with his mother Maureen
listing out several discrepancies.
The family has flatly refuted the
police theory that Stephen travelled from Goa to Roha (Maharashtra) on Mandovi Express.
Through the documents furnished to Indian authorities,
Maureen has rubbished the theory of her son travelling by train
claiming that he left the cottage
in Baga at 9.30 am on December

Police planted a train ticket of December 10,
which was then changed to December 7. They
neither allowed the alleged tickets to be
photographed nor test for Stephen’s fingerprints
or DNA…Mandovi (Express) train does not even
stop at Roha.
— Stephen Bennett’s mother Maureen
7, 2006.
“It is not possible catch the
10 am Mandovi Express after
leaving Baga at 9.30 am which
is 70-90 minutes away by car,
in light traffic…” she wrote to
the Government.

Even as the case is tried before the Raigad Court, the
grieved mother said that no passenger witnessed Stephen jump
off the train. Also no abandoned
bag was noticed at Panvel station in Maharashtra.

“No passenger claims to have
seen Stephen jump from the
train. It is not possible to see
from the window to that part
of the track below. They had no
reason to assume he had left
the train at this place especially
as Panvel was only one stop
away where they allegedly reported the mysterious ‘abandoned’ bag. Statements taken
from the three police inspectors
at Panvel station show that no
passenger reported an abandoned bag”, she said.
The UK mother alleged the
police reports were to mislead

the family. She alleged that the
police apparently planted a train
ticket of December 10, which
was then changed to December
7. “The police neither allowed
the alleged tickets to be photographed nor test for Stephen’s
fingerprints or DNA…Mandovi
(Express) train does not even
stop at Roha”, she said.
Strongly suspecting a botched
investigation, Maureen further
claimed that the statement of
the train passenger raises suspicion that police produced
‘identical’ and ‘inaccurate’
(Continued on page 10)

Can't be so diplomatic with these
guys sir!! I thought they would
welcome us with flowers instead
of those stones...

Chief Minister Digambar Kamat
on Monday assured the House
that the government would give
preference to Goans in security
jobs as Opposition took on him
for allowing them to be grabbed
by non-Goans.
Kamat was responding to a
question raised by Mandrem
MLA Laxmikant Parsekar who
along with other Opposition
members demanded that Goans
should get these jobs, during
Question Hour.
Parsekar said, majority of security guards employed at government departments are
non-Goan and there is huge difference in salaries paid by these
departments.

At which point Kamat tried
to explain that non-Goans security men were hired due to
non-availability of local men.
However, Mandrem MLA countered saying Goa employment
recruitment society had security
men from Goa and were employed in some of the government departments. “They were
sent home and agencies with
non-Goan security men were selected,” he alleged.
Kamat cut-in saying most of
them were later absorbed in different government departments
on contract basis.
Parsekar also asked why there
was no parity in salaries paid to
security guards. “If one department pays Rs 3909 per month
others pay Rs 6321 per month”

he said.
Opposition grilled the government over large number of
security men employed at health
institutes such as Goa Medical
College, Goa Dental College, Directorate of Health Services,.
There are more security men
at these institutes than doctors,
pointed out Opposition Leader,
Manohar Parrikar.
The GMC has in employment
about 229 security personnel.
Questioning the need for so
many security men, he said, the
government spends Rs 4.5 crore
on the payment of salaries of
security men.
The chief minister said they
work in shifts -- there are three
shifts in GMC and work force
get divided.

Russian rape trial commences
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JULY 19

Trial in the Russian women rape case got underway in the South Goa Sessions Court on Monday.
Day one of the trial conducted before Additional
Sessions Judge B P Deshpande saw the prosecution
examining two witnesses, including a panch witness in support of its case.
The trial will be conducted on a day-to-day
basis as desired by accused, John Fernandes as
he has been in custody without trial for more
than six months.

House lauds
eminent
Goans

While Public Prosecutor, Bhanudas Gaonkar
appeared for the state, the accused was represented by Adv Anacleto Viegas.
The Crime Branch had listed 42 witnesses in
support of its case, of which the prosecution has
called for examination of 18 witnesses.
Incidentally, the complainant Russian woman
is not figuring in the list of 18 witnesses the prosecution wants to examine in the case.
Sources in the know said the prosecution will
call her for examination after the report from
the central forensic laboratory is received by the
investigating agency.

This was a written reply given
by Water Resources Minister to
a starred question tabled by
Siolim MLA Dayanand Mandrekar on the exact status of
the project.
In his reply, the Water Resources Minister further stated
the total cost of the project
was Rs 1612.15 crore and the
cost of the canal network running through Goa was Rs
524.54 crore.
“The share of the State Government towards the works is
Rs 1025.00 crore as per the latest estimate approved by the
Planning Commission of India,”
the reply of the minister informs.
On the question of benefit
of the project to both Goa and
Maharashtra and its utilisation
potential, the minister observed, “The share of benefit
works out to irrigation potential of 14,521 ha area in Goa
and 6,676 ha in Maharashtra.
“In addition Goa will utilise
111.46 million cubic metre of
water for domestic and industrial purpose,” he replied.
The share works out to
459.63 Mcm for Goa and
167.55 Mcm for Maharashtra
from a storage capacity of
627.18 Mcm, which runs into
73.30: 26.70 ratio.

Retired teachers hold rally
demanding VI Pay benefits

HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JULY 19

The Goa Assembly on Monday
congratulated renowned neuro
spinal surgeon Dr P S Ramani,
a Goan for winning prestigious
“Dr Paul Bassi” award from
America, for his excellence in
neuro and spinal surgeries.
Dr Ramani is the first Asian
to win the award.
Senior members of the
House including Speaker Pratapsing Rane, Chief Minister
Digambar Kamat, Deputy
Speaker Mauvin Godinho spoke
applauding Dr Ramani for his
huge contribution in the field
of medicine.
Minister for Panchayat Babu
Azgaonkar and Fatorda MLA
Damu Naik too congratulated
Dr Ramani for bringing laurels
to Goa.
Bhakti Pradeep Kulkarni: The
House today congratulated
Bhakti Pradeep Kulkarni for
showing excellence in chess
and winning gold medals at
Asian Youth Chess Championship under 18 girls category
held at Beijing and bringing
laurels to Goa.
The motion was moved by
Fartodar ML A Damu Naik
moved. The House also congratulated Talasha Satish
Prabhu for winning four gold
and silver medals at the 37 the
junior national aquatic meet at
Bangalore and clinching title
of “fastest female swimmer”
with India’s best time of 59.50
seconds to win gold in 100 mts
free style.
The motion was moved by
Opposition Leader Manohar
Parrikar.

Hundreds of former teachers
who were compelled to retire
at the age of 58 due to reduction
in retirement age from 60 to 58
staged a protest rally in Porvorim on Monday.
The rally commenced from
Teen building and proceeded
towards the Secretariat, but it
was stopped by police near the
Sanjay School.
Since the teachers defied orders and began proceeding towards the Secretariat, Police
arrested 226 agitators. They
were, however, released following an order of the Bardez
Deputy Collector Dashrath Redkar.
Speaking to reporters, President of Discriminated Teachers
Forum Neves Anthony Rebello

Communidades staff
not paid salaries
since April
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JULY 19

Once again, the 30-odd workers
employed with the South Goa
Administrator of Communidades are facing their common
problem over the years – nonpayment of their salaries.
Believe it or not, these employees had to go without their
salaries for the last three months
since April and see no hope that
the salaries will come by the
end of the current month.
The issue was taken up with
the Administrator of Communidades and the district Collector, South, but the funds have
not come in from the government to clear the salaries. These
employees are totally dependent
on the government to receive
their monthly salaries with the
coffers of the Administrator of
Communidades unable to meet
the salary requirements.
“Just imagine our plight and
that of our families when we
had to go without salaries for
the last three months. There are
various commitments, including

loans, we have to meet, but in
vain,” remarked an employee.
Unlike the employees, the Administrator of Communidades
received his salary from the government and these hapless employees say the government
should work out a mechanism
wherein they receive their
salaries from the government.
Last year too, the employees
had to go without salaries for
months, before the government
sanctioned an amount of Rs 45
lakh towards the salaries. The
cheque was sanctioned after the
Administrator was made to give
an undertaking that the amount
would be refunded.
An amount of Rs 3 lakh is required to meet the salaries of
the 30-odd employees every
month.
A senior official told Herald
that the Administrator of Communidade has drawn the attention of the government towards
the plight of the employees and
exuded confidence that a solution would be found to the problem of salary payments.

stated due to reduction of the
age limit from 60 to 58 years,
retired teachers lost two years
increment as a consequence of
which they are drawing less pension.
“The government should pay
us pension based on the VI Pay
Commission. Teachers who have
not completed 33 years of service are not getting full pension.
If the VI Pay Commission is made
applicable to us, we will get full
pension,” said Rebello.
“If the pension benefits are
extended to the prematurely retired teachers based on the VI
Pay Commission, the additional
burden on the government exchequer will be only Rs 8 crore,”
said Rebello.
He informed that they had
started their agitation since August 2009. “We organized rallies

Shop burgled
PORVORIM: Burglars broke into
a hardware shop at Angod-Mapusa and decamped with cash
and hardware material worth Rs
3.8 lakh.
The owner of the hardware
shop, M R Fernandes, lodged a
police complaint stating that he
was informed over phone by
somebody around 6 am on Monday that the lock of the shop’s
shutter had been broken.
He rushed to the shop and
found cash and hardware material, all worth Rs 3.8 lakh, were
stolen.
Mapusa Police pressed a police dog squad into service but
failed to get further clues into
the burglary.

Photo by Anil Shankhwalker

and resorted to hunger strikes
to draw the government’s attention to our demand, but in
vain,” he said.
“Chief Minister Digamber
Kamat had assured us that our
grievances would be redressed
within one month. We had
served a notice to both the chief
minister and Education Minister
Atanasio Monserratte to inform
the Discriminated Teachers
Forum whether the government
has any plans to solve the genuine grievances of the prematurely retired teachers before
the commencement of the Assembly Session, so that we could
prevent the rally.”
“But there was no reply from
the government, which is why
we have organized this rally. We
will continue to fight till our demands are met,” said Rebello.

High Court denies bail to Mickky
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JULY 19

Bombay High Court at Goa today
rejected the bail petition of former Tourism Minister Mickky
Pacheco.
Passing the order today
evening, Justice A S Oka said
that at this stage the court is
not inclined to grant him
(Pacheco) bail.
However, the court said that
Pacheco can move appropriate
authorities seeking permission
to attend the ongoing assembly
session.
Earlier during argument, Advocate Surendra Dessai, representing Pacheco pointed out
that the Crime Branch has not

interrogated Pacheco for last
two to three days and as such
there is no need of further custodial interrogation.
He even brought to the notice
of the court that police so far
failed to get information from
the five mobile handsets and
three SIM cards recovered from
Pacheco’s residence.
Dessai also said that there
was nothing to prove that
Pacheco would destroy the evidence. “Even when Pacheco was
missing he never tried to temper
with the evidence,” Dessai said.
Desai also said that the entire
case was based on circumstances and there were no direct
evidence to prove that Pacheco

has provoked Nadia’s suicide
“Nadia being just a friend of
Pacheco, there is no evidence
which proves him guilty,’ he said
“The statements recorded
from the family members of the
victim has also not indicted that
Pacheco is involved in the
crime. Nor the phone call
records have proved that,” the
lawyer added.
Dessai contented that Pacheco
is innocent as he had accompanied Nadia to various hospitals
and tried to save her life.
Dessai also clarified that of
the 14 injuries found on the
body of Nadia, three were surgical, two caused during hospitalization and rest are related

Order on Sonia’s bail plea reserved
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JULY 19

The South Goa Sessions Court has reserved its orders on the bail application
filed by Nadia Torrado’s mother Sonia to
Tuesday morning.
After hearing arguments from the prosecution and defence counsel, Additional
Sessions Judge B P Deshpande has posted
the matter for orders on Tuesday.
Defense lawyer, Adv Radharao Gracias
submitted that Sonia is entitled for bail as
the prosecution has not made out any case
against her. He further argued that the offense of culpable homicide not amounting
to murder and abetment to suicide are not
compatible and submitted that the offence
of destruction of evidence is bailable.
Adv Gracias argued that Sonia has been
in the custody of the Crime Branch for the

last five days, adding that she has been cooperating with the investigating agency for
over a month now. While praying for bail,
Adv Gracias submitted that even the
Supreme Court has granted anticipatory
bail to Pacheco’s OSD Lyndon Monteiro,
who was wanted by the Crime Branch for
the offence of destruction of evidence. “If
Lyndon can get bail from the Supreme Court,
why should my client not get the bail after
being in custody for five days,” he argued.
Adv Gracias said the investigating agency
should come to the court with clean hands
and not by manipulating the records
On the other hand, Public Prosecutor
Sarojini Sardinha vehemently opposed the
bail plea saying Sonia is required in custody
to recover Nadia’s missing mobiles, passport
and the empty ratol tube.
She said that only Sonia could explain

who was using the mobile phone set having
IMEI number after Nadia’s death as the SIM
card was registered in the name of the accused.
“The accused is required in police custody
to recover Nadia’s mobile phones, passport,
ratol tube. Sonia is required in police custody to explain the events on May 14
evening and also explain the injuries on
Nadia’s body. The accused is required in
custody to explain the contents of the bags
disposed off by burning behind the house
of the accused,” Sardinha added.
Replying to the defence arguments that
Nadia might have sustained the injuries
while being tied to the hospital bed at the
Jupiter hospital, Sardinha said that hospital
records do not mention anything that the
patient was tied to a bed or that the patient
was on a ventilator.

A house partially collapsed on
Monday due to heavy rains at
Gaonkarwada-Bicholim causing
a loss of about Rs 30,000.
The incident occurred at
about 7 pm when a wall of the
house belonging to one Bhivaji
Dattu Gaonkar collapsed, damaging property worth Rs 30,000.
The fire brigade rushed to the
site but was unable to clear the
debris as the roof was in a dangerous position and was likely
to collapse at any time. The family members were asked to move
to a safer place by the side of
the house.
Mayem correspondent adds:
Heavy rains affected normal life
in Bicholim taluka on Monday
and the fire services had to attend to a number of calls during
the day.
Roads and low lying areas
were filled with rainwater, causing hardship to motorists and
residents.
Though there were continuous rains, there is no fear of
floods for now as the Anjunem
dam has not reached the danger
level.

One killed in
Polem mishap

CANACONA: A man from Karwar
died on the spot in a road
mishap at Polem on Monday
night.
According to Canacona police, Nambev Naik of KodibhagKarwar died on the spot in an
accident involving a motorcycle
(GA-02-D-6653) at Polem. Police
suspects it may have been a selfaccident. Police sent the body
to the Hospicio at Margao for
an autopsy.

HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JULY 19

The Margao Municipal Council
seems to have forgotten the resolution adopted by the Council
to file a writ petition in the High
Court seeking directions to former Chief Officer Prasanna
Acharya to disclose the names
of Councilors involved in corruption.
It’s more two months since
the City Fathers resolved to file
a petition to direct Acharya to
disclosed the names of Coun-

cilors, who were allegedly extorting money from builders
after raising issues of illegalities
in the Civic body.
When contacted, MMC Chairperson Savio Coutinho said the
file pertaining to the resolution
was forwarded to the Municipal
lawyer for an opinion.
Coutinho, however, could not
state when the file was forwarded to the lawyer and the
name of the lawyer, who has
taken so long time to give the
opinion.

The Opposition MLAs brought
to the notice of the House some
pressing issues requiring urgent
attention of the Government on
the first day of the Goa Legislative Assembly during the discussion on budget session.
Siolim MLA Dayanand Mandrekar informed that a sand bar
that has appeared again in river
Chapora was causing great inconvenience to fishermen and
as such the authority concerned
should make efforts to remove
the same. He highlighted the
sand erosion near Starco in Anjuna and warned that hotels in

the vicinity were in danger.
The MLA mentioned that Mapusa Deputy Collector D Redkar
has been given several additional charges as a result of
which he wasn’t able to deliver
the goods. There is a need for
a full-fledged deputy collector
to check into illegalities in
Bardez taluka, he said.
Mandrekar said he has been
taking up the issue of Chapora
Fort since 1999 and pressed for
its renovation in the Assembly.
Archaeology ministers have
come and gone but nothing is
happening as far as renovation
of the fort was concerned, he
stated.

HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JULY 19

Tarpaulin used to cover the
Sonsodo waste dumping site a
year ago at a whopping cost of
nearly Rs 17 lakh has come back
to haunt the Margao Municipal
Council.
MMC had awarded the tender
for nearly Rs 17 lakh to cover the
garbage dumping site on the eve
of last monsoons as per the directions of the High Court.
But, what has now raised eyebrows in the corridors of the
civic body is that the similar
work of covering Sonsodo with
tarpaulin this monsoon was carried out by Fomento group for
an amount less than Rs 5 lakh.

The huge difference in the
tender amount floated by the
civic body and the similar work
carried out by Fomento at the
dumping site has raised more
questions. More so, when Fomento is believed to have used
quality tarpaulin with 120 grams
per square meter, costing
around Rs 32.15 in the open
market.
Sources in the Margao Municipality disclosed that the civic
body had recently dashed off a
letter to Fomento seeking details on the tarpaulin and
whether the company would
charge the civic body for the
capping work.
When contacted, Margao Mu-

The MLA was highly critical
of Vishwajeet Rane for his “I
don’t care attitude” to his party’s
call for starting the new Asilo
Hospital on August 15. “There
was no mention of hunger strike
in our press conference, but the
next day Rane said we would
go on hunger strike or do anything and he didn’t care,” he
mentioned.
Mandrekar accused Rane of
using goondagiri type of language with them. “He wants to
give the hospital to a private
party under the PPP model. We
oppose this move,” he said.
Looking towards Aldona MLA
Dayanand Narvekar, the Siolim

MLA said during his tenure as
health minister the former had
never spoken of PPP the way
Rane was doing.
Mayem MLA Anant Shet also
raised several issues before the
House and laid special emphasis
on mining, both legal and illegal.
Shet maintained, “Apart from
illegal mining, the Government
should check into legal leases
whether everything inside was
going on within the leased area.
A control has to be maintained
on the legal mines and these
should not be allowed to mine
very deep so as to disturb the
water table.”

With the seizure of over Rs 20
lakh worth of liquor from an illegally operating manufacturing
and packaging unit at ShelimLoliem on Saturday, there are
strong speculations that the illegal operations could have links
to several States in the country.
Sources in the Excise Department had admitted that if only

the seized quantity of processed
liquor and raw alcohol is taken
into consideration, a whopping
Rs 10 lakh worth of excise taxes
had been evaded by the illegal
operators.
The sources further disclosed
that the tax evasion could run
into several crores of rupees,
given the information that the
operations at the unit were in
existence for about 4-5 years.

Sources also informed Herald
that the tentacles of these illegal
operations is limited not only to
one state of Karnataka as was
originally believed, but the network reportedly has connections
in several other states, where
such consignments have a huge
demand, given the cost of legal
consignments in some states.
It is learnt that even a native
from Kerala, operating a different

Incidentally, though the City
Fathers went all out at the special meeting to take the matter
to the court seeking directions
to the former chief officer to
disclose the names of councilors involved in corruption,
nothing has been heard from
the elected representatives in
the corridors of the civic body
in recent times.
Former chief officer Prasanna
Acharya had stirred a hornet’s
nest before he was shunted out
of the civic body when he put
up a note to the chairperson
stating that some of the councilors raise issues of illegal construction activity and then strike
deals with the builders for a
consideration.
The issue had snowballed into
a major controversy and the special meeting of the council had
unanimously resolved to knock
the doors of the High Court to
take the former chief officer to
task.

Sonsodo… a constant thorn

Opposition highlights pressing issues
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JULY 19

to her disease, acute liver failure,
which she was suffering from.
Dessai said that it would be
humiliating to Pacheco to attend
the ongoing assembly session
escorted by police and hence
bail should be granted to him.
Public prosecutor C Fereira
said that the Crime Branch is
yet to recover two mobiles and
a laptop used by Nadia.
He mentioned that even after
Nadia’s death on May 30, one of
her mobile was being used, till
June 5. Fereira said that the police are also yet to recover the
blunt object allegedly used to
hit Nadia, which is evident from
the postmortem report which
shows injuries on her body.

unit in the taluka, used to enjoy
close rapport with the operator
of the illegally running manufacturing and packaging liquor unit
at Shelli- Loliem, and was said to
be actively trafficking large consignments to his home state.
A local wholesale liquor dealer,
speaking to Herald on condition
of anonymity, said: “We used to
meet the requirement of several
stakeholders beyond the state’s

borders in neighbouring Karnataka. But since the last 3-4
years, there was no significant
movement of our stocks, compelling us to restrict our demands
with original brand suppliers.”
Meanwhile, the prime accused
and the alleged kingpin of massive illegal liquor manufacturing
and packaging unit is still at large,
as excise officials have been unable to track him down.

nicipal Chairperson Savio
Coutinho said he has no idea how
much Fomento has spent to cover
the Sonsodo dump yard with tarpaulin. He, however, hastened to
add that the cost might have
come down this year since Fomento has covered only the slope
and garbage mound at the yard.
“When the Civic body had covered the site a year ago, it had
to cover a wide space since the
waste was scattered all over the
dumping site,” Coutinho added.
He, however, said that the estimates to cover the dumping
site with tarpaulin were prepared by the municipal technical
section, before the tenders were
floated by the civic body.

Hotel
federation
elects panel
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
CALANGUTE, JUL 19

The Federation of Small and
Medium Hotels and Guest
Houses (FSMHGH) in the State
has elected its new committee
to look into the interests of its
members.
Effifiano Barretto was elected
president of FSMHGH, while
other members in the Executive
Committee are Padmanath Nair,
Edwin Barretto, John Rodrigues,
Sumitra Egipsy, Anthony Cardozo, Edwin Fonseca and Antonio Jose de Souza.
The Federation later deliberated on different issues ranging
from license fees, waiver from
Goa State Pollution Control
Board, classification of hotels
into different categories and a
white paper on tourism.
Giving in to the general view
of the members, the newly
elected committee of the Federation has decided to pursue
with its demand for renewal of
licenses for a minimum period
of three years.
The Committee has also decided to put its demand to the
State government.

The first day of the Goa Legislative Assembly saw Speaker Pratapsing Rane hardening and
mellowing down on three of the
Opposition members who created a ruckus in the House over
price rise.
Adopting a tough stance,
Rane warned the trio that he
would throw them out of the
Assembly for talking together
thus vitiating the decorum of
the House.
But while winding up the
business of the day, the Speaker
softened his stand against the
three and maintained that the
Opposition members should be
decent enough not to talk at
one time, letting them off the
hook.
The Speaker had earlier ex-

punged the statements made
by the trio, which he withdrew
later saying the statements can
go on record.
The House witnessed pandemonium for a brief period during Question Hour when Fatorda
MLA Damordar Naik sought to
know whether the government
was aware of rising prices of
food grains and how it has impacted middle class and poor
people.
The Minister for Civil Supplies
Jose Philip D’Souza told the
House of the steps being taken
to provide relief to the people.
The government has been implementing a scheme, “government intervention for control
of price” which was introduced
in June, 2008.
The scheme is implemented
through Goa Co-operative and

Marketing Federation and Goa
State Horticulture Corporation
Ltd. Over 1,00,548 people have
benefited by the scheme, he
told the House.
Not satisfied with the minister’s reply, the Opposition members raised more questions and
suddenly the House was in
chaos with Opposition members denouncing the government for its failure to control
prices.
Speaker Rane categorically
made it clear that he would not
accept bedlam in the House and
statements of the Opposition
members who spoke out of turn
would be expunged.
He also ordered Opposition
Leader Manohar Parrikar to instruct his fellow members not
to interrupt him (Parrikar) when
he is making a point.

Bus owners
call of strike
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JULY 19

The private transport operators
today withdrew their hunger
strike after State government assured them to hike the ticket fares
for the first nine kilometers.
The strike was called off
within one hour this morning.
All Goa Private Bus Owners
Association General Secretary
Sudip Tamankar said that Chief
Minister Digamber Kamat intervened in the matter.
“Just as when we started the
strike, the chief minister telephoned me asking to meet
Transport Director Arun Desai,”
Tamankar said.
“Desai assured to hike the
ticket fares to 15 paisa for the
first nine kilometers in addition
to Rs 5 for the first three kilometers,” he added.
Tamankar said that the notification in this regard will be issued within a week. “We are
thankful to CM for redressing
our grievances,” he said.

Ironic accolades for men in khaki
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JULY 19

Continuously in the line of fire for their alleged connection with the drug mafia, the
police were in for some patting from Opposition MLA Dayanand Mandrekar who
branded the force as “very clean and honest”.
Don’t mistake this for real patting. Mandrekar’s statements of praise for the men
in khaki were filled with sarcasm rubbing

salt to their wounds. There is vast difference
from the police of the past and now, he
said in a manner that was ridiculing.
In a speech filled with sarcasm during
discussion on budget on the first day of
the Goa Legislative Assembly, the MLA
stated, “The police of now are very clean,
so clean that the Chief Minister should give
contract to make gold medals for personnel
from the rank of DIG to police constables

and the honour could be bestowed on them
during the Liberation Day function.”
Mandrekar said he was scared to talk
about the police because if he did so there
was no guarantee that he would reach home
safe. They have the capacity to catch me
somewhere on the way and pack me off,
he mentioned. He said the height of corruption in the force is such that only God
can investigate the same.

Govt opposed to expansion of port: CM
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JULY 19

Chief Minister Digambar Kamat
reiterated that Goa government
is opposed to expansion of Mormugao Port and that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has
been of the government’s position when the all party delegation on Madei had called on the
PMO.
He was responding to a question posed by Mormugao MLA
Milind Naik during Question
Hour on Monday.
Naik’s wanted to know what
has been done to rein in MPT
which “is hell-bent on going

ahead with expansion of the
port.”
Earlier, Minister for Ports
Nilkanth Halarnkar in his written
reply informed the House that
the chief minister had written
to the prime minister, Minister
for Environment and Forest
Jairam Ramesh and Minister for
Shipping G K Vassan intimating
them about the existing problem.
Not content with the minister’s reply, Mormugao MLA as
well as Leader of the Opposition
Manohar Parrikar pointed out
that MPT has already embarked
on its expansion plan while the

seven member committee appointed by the government in
2008 met just trice during last
three years to discuss the issue.
“If this is the case I don’t
know when the issue will be resolved,” said Naik.
Parrikar said, MPT doesn’t
care a dame about objections
raised by any of the State government departments.
Kamat said a power point
presentation was made to the
PMO, and the Environment Impact Assessment study clearly
shows what would be the impact on ecology if MPT is allowed to go head with its

expansion plan.
Speaker Pratapsing Rane suggested that the State Government should have urgent
meeting with Union Minister
Vasan.
The State government is opposing the expansion of Mormugao port on the grounds that
the expansion would affect the
demography and the ecology.
Locals are also opposed to the
expansion of Mormugao port
as they will have to relocate to
make space for expansion plan.
The expansion plan of MPT is
not feasible due to limitation
on land, says the government.

Painting a grim picture of the
education scenario in Canacona
taluka, Poinguinim MLA Ramesh
Tawadkar castigated the State
government for not taking advantage of Central educational
schemes meant for tribals.
Tawadkar was referring to the
Tribal Welfare Scheme under
which States get funds from
Centre to boost education in
tribal-dominated areas. The MLA
ridiculed the government saying
whether it was aware of such a
scheme in order to take full advantage of it.
Speaking during discussion
on budget on the first day of
the Goa Legislative Assembly,
Tawadkar informed the House
that Gujarat had taken full benefit of central schemes and was
running some 200 projects
under it. “The Tribal Welfare Department is with the chief min-

ister and I am certain he would
take note of the same,” he mentioned.
The MLA said, “The general
feeling among the people of the
State is that the education scenario here is good, but one has
to come to Canacona and see.
In interior parts of the taluka
many schools are closing down.”
He mentioned that those who
could afford had admitted their
wards in Margao to provide
them quality education which
is not available in Canacona.
There are some parents who
have to be in Margao everyday
for the sake of their children’s
education but have to commute
to Canacona on a daily basis for
their livelihood, he mentioned.

He said the drop out rate in
Canacona schools was something the Government should
ponder over and find a solution
to.
Tawadkar also raised the issue
of implementation of the Tribal
Forest Act. “There is no sign of
any deliberation on the law,” he
said asserting, “If implanted, the
law would bring relief to 3,000
to 4,000 tribal families.”
Raising the issue of health for
which Canacona was in the news
some days ago, he reminded
they were assured of improvement in the health facilities
within a fortnight. “The Government shouldn’t wait till people are forced to come on the
streets,” he stated.

He highlighted roads in remote areas of Canacona were
pathetic and quite a few of the
parts were not getting clean
drinking water even after 50
years of liberation.
Raising a point on the muchtalked about Galgibaga bridge,
the MLA said atleast during
the golden jubilee year of the
State work on the bridge
should take off. The land acquisition for the purpose was
done years back but till date
there was no sign of the bridge,
he maintained.
On the agriculture front, he
observed there was a great potential for agriculture tourism
in interior places of the taluka
like Gaondongrim and Cotigao.

GOA

HE RA LD

Pg 4

GOA, TUESDAY, 20 JULY, 2010

S H O RT TA K E S
Borkar installed president

PANJIM (HND): Jeevandas Borkar was installed as the President
of Lions Club of Loutolim by the installing officer Anastasio
Colaco at a glittering ceremony at Ruby Toos, Loutolim.
Other members of the team are Milena Mota - secretary,
Antonio Araujo - treasurer, Manoj Chari - 1st vice president,
Synora Quadros – second vice president, Paul Sa immediate past
president, Uttam Kumar - lion tamer, Agostinho Barracho - tail
twister, Celso Dias - quest director, Allan Araujo - PRO, Mario Sequeira - IT, Edward Monteiro Membership com–chairman, Noel
Quadros – vice-chairman and Philip Dias, J T Vaz, Francisco Miranda, Antonio Quadros, all directors.
Chief guest and MP Francisco Sardinha appreciated the efforts
of NGOs like Lions for the wonderful work that they have been
doing for the community for so many years. He said that in the
beginning, there were few clubs in Goa and now, there is bigger
number and they are also responsible for the development and
progress that Goa has made all these years.
He appreciated the career guidance courses organized by the
club for the school students and he said it is needed to guide
our youth. As a member of Parliament, he assured the club of his
support to carry on service to the people.

Feast celebrated at Calangute

CALANGUTE (HC): Parishioners
of Calangute celebrated the feast
of its patron saint St Alex with religious fervour on Sunday.
On the occasion, St Alex Church
website www.stalexchurch.com
was launched by Parish Priest Fr
Carmo Martins, while a special
issue of ‘Sant Aleixacho SAAD’
(The Voice of St Alex) was released
by St Xaviers College, Mapusa,
Principal Fr Walter D’Sa.
Speaking on the occasion, Fr
Martins congratulated Assistant
Parish Priest Fr Clifford Cardozo
for the launch of the website of
the Calangute Church which had St Alex Church, Calangute,
remained as a dream for a quite Parish Priest Fr Carmo Marlong.
tins and Assistant Parish
While releasing the special Priest Fr Clifford Cardozo of
i s s u e o f ‘ S a n t A l e i x a c h o launch the website.
SAAD’/Voice of St Alex on comPhoto by Thomas Fernandes
pletion of 20 years of existence,
Fr D’Sa congratulated the editorial board for the splendid job
and hoped the good work will go forward in the right direction.
Following the Feast Mass was concelebrated by Fr D’Sa with
Fr Martins and priests of the village Fr James Pereira, Fr Ubaldo
Mascarenhas, Fr Alex D’Souza, Assistant Parish Priest Fr Clifford
Cardozo highlighted the twin celebrations to the parishioners
of Calangute on the occasion of the feast of St Alex and
hoped the media will be of great importance to the parishioners.
Earlier, Parishioners of Calangute and surrounding areas took
part in the religious ceremonies to mark the feast of Patron St
Alex.

Anti-tobacco week

BICHOLIM (HC): Saraswat Vidyalaya, Khorlim-Mapusa, recently
observed anti-tobacco week in the school premises.
On the occasion, a special talk was organised for the students
of Std 8, 9 and 10. During the talk, doctors informed the
students about several health hazards and the consequences
of consuming tobacco.
The doctors urged the students not to consume tobacco and
ruin their life. They were also given pamphlets and told that
tobacco could cause cancer and could affect almost every parts
of the body.
During the week, a poster and drawing competition was
also organised for the students. The topics for the drawing
competition included ‘Say no to Cigarettes’ and ‘Think health,
stop tobacco’. For the poster competition, the three topics
were ‘Think health, stop tobacco’, ‘Say no to cigarettes’ and
‘Stop Gutkha, avoid cancer’.
Teachers Vibhavari Priolkar, Suvarna Singnapurkar and
Nadkarni took special efforts for the success of the programmes.

State youth awards

PANJIM(HND): The last date for submission of the duly filled
in application forms to the Directorate of Sports and Youth
Affairs for the Institution of the State Youth Awards 2009-10
has been extended to July 30.
The forms should contain relevant bio-data, credentials, certificate of achievements, etc.
All eligible candidates/youth/youth organisations are
hereby requested to submit the relevant application
forms, complete in every respect, to U D Navelkar, Asst
Phy Edu. Officer, Youth section of the Directorate of
Sports and Youth Affairs, Campal, Panjim during office
hours on any working day.
The Meritorious Youth/Youth organizations will be duly recommended for the National Youth Award 2009-2010.

Curchorem school SC installed

CURHCOREM (HC): The Students Council (SC) of Guardian
Angel Higher Secondary School, Curchorem, for 2010-11 was
recently installed by Fr Joaquim Rebello, Vice Principal of
Guardian Angel Institute of Hotel Management and Catering
Technology, Curchorem.
Fr Rebello administered the oath of office to the office
bearers and congratulated the students and exhorted them to
be leaders.
Earlier, Guardian Angel Higher Secondary School Principal
Fr Frank Mendes introduced and welcomed the chief guest
and urged the office bearers to take their task seriously in the
spirit of growing into the future leaders of the country.
General Secretary Peregrino Lima of Std XII Com B pledged
to focus on maintaining the school discipline and uphold the
reputation of the school at all times.
The office bearers and members of the Student Council for
2010-11 are Pregrino Lima (general secretary), Anjali Pires (assistant secretary), Alister Rebello (sports secretary), Stella Faria
(cultural secretary), Aiton Fernandes (academic secretary) and
Mercia Fernandes (discipline secretary).
Assistant General Secretary Anjali Pires proposed the vote
of thanks.

Jadhav elected GBOA chief

VASCO(HR): Atul Jadhav was
unanimously elected president of
Goa Barge Owners Association
(GBOA) for the sixth successive occasion.
Jadhav was unanimously proposed as president, while William
D’Costa was elected secretary for
year 2010-11 in the 35th annual
general body meeting of GBOA
held in the association office.
Other members elected are Uday K Naik (vice president),
Chandrakant Gawas (treasurer) and Osric Cabral, Prabhakar S
Naik and Milin Arolkar (members).

Complaining that Merces villagers traveling to and fro Panjim
have been harassed by traffic
policemen and issued challans
for not wearing helmets, the locals have demanded that the
road, which was earlier used by
them to commute before it was
included in the highway, should
be reverted back to the village
so that villagers could commute
on this road without fear of
being fined by traffic police.
Initiating the discussion on
the subject, Suresh Pilarnekar
informed that village road was
included in the highway without
acquiring the same and without
issuing any notification to this
effect.
“Since then, Merces villagers
have been forced to use the
highway road and those who do
not wear helmets become easy
prey for the traffic police,” he
said and added that the privileges enjoyed by Merces locals
should not be compromised for
no fault of theirs.
Commenting further on the
issue, a villager who did not
wished to be named claimed
that traffic police who are stationing themselves at any point
on the highway are doing so illegally as according to national
highway rules, the traffic police
can stop motorists to issue challans only where there are humps
or speed breakers.
He further added that if they
wish to station themselves at a
particular point, they have to

Adv Velho’s
death
condoled

take permission from the National Highway Authority of
India.
The villagers then urged the
panchayat to address a letter to
the Traffic Police SP informing
him of the grievances of Merces
villagers and get them resolved
at the earliest.
The issue of stray dogs also
took centre stage at the gram
sabha with villager Edwin
Nazareth narrating the trauma
he went through when he was
bit by a rabid dog recently.
He questioned what action
the panchayat has taken to control the population of stray dogs
in the village.
Joining the discussion, another villager John Nazareth informed that the Merces Vigilant
Citizens Association has already
put forth a proposal to the panchayat of their willingness to
sterilize and vaccinate stray dogs
provided the panchayat is willing
to fund. He then questioned
what the panchayat has done
so far over their proposal.
Replying on the issue, Secretary Rupesh Halarnkar informed
that the proposal would be forwarded to a NGO appointed by
the government to deal with
stray dogs and also a copy of it
would be forwarded to the Veterinary Services Department for
their perusal and accordingly a
decision would be taken.
The issue of plans to set up a
waste treatment plant at Morombi-O-Grande also came up
for discussion with villager
Suresh Pilarnekar informing that

the plant cannot be set up at
Morombi-O-Grande since it has
already been declared as environment protection area.
He demanded that the
process started for identifying
site for waste plant should be
immediately stalled.
However, Secretary Halarnkar
informed that the process is already in the final stage and if
the area is declared as environment protection area, then the
Goa State Pollution Control
Board would not give its okay
for the site and the question of
stalling the process midway
does not arise.
Halarnkar then informed that
if this site is also rejected, then
the Merces VP would be out of
option as far as identifying of
suitable site for waste plant is
concerned.
In this regard, he suggested
that the panchayat can then appeal to the government to allow
Merces garbage to be treated
at the proposed CCP waste plant
and in return the panchayat will
bear the expenses.
Earlier, a heated discussion
ensued over the payments made
to the cattle pound contractor
with villagers condemning the
action of the panchayat of overriding an earlier gram sabha resolution stating that the payments
should be withheld until the contractor fulfills all the conditions of
running a cattle pound.
BDO representative Swapnil
Nageshkar who is appointed the
administrator of Merces VP conducted the gram sabha.

Rider dies
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JULY 18

A 30-year old motorcycle rider
died in road accident at the
Power House road junction on
Sunday evening.
Margao PSI Manguesh Volvoikar
said the deceased Edwin Colaco
from Raia sustained serious head
injuries after his Bullet motorcycle
hit the road divider installed at the
junction. He said the rider died
on the way to the Hospicio hospital. The police are invevestigating.

The Ganesh festival preparations
are already underway in Canacona with the formation of various committees, including
formation of Chaudi Sarvajanik
Ganeshotshav Samiti, one of the
prime committees in the taluka.
In the recently held meeting
of Chaudi Sarvajanik
Ganeshosthav Samiti, Pramod
Dessai was president for celebration of Ganesh festivals during 2010. Other members of the
executive committee are Neelu
Pagui (secretary) and Prashant
Dessai (treasurer).
Besides, different committees
are also appointed like Pandal
and Decoration committee, Cultural programme committee,
Pujan committee and Idol Immersion committee, incorporating several persons as members
in these committees.

TAG’s workshop held at Saligao

HERALD NEWS DESK
PANJIM, JULY 19

Chief Minister Digambar Kamat
has condoled the death of Advocate Leo Velho who passed
away after suffering massive
heart attack.
Ve l h o r e p r e s e n t e d G o a ,
Daman and Diu Legislative
Assembly from Navelim constituency.
Kamat said that Velho who
was the first Central Government Notary in Goa followed
parliamentary procedures and
etiquettes meticulously.
“He was an active member
of the House who always came
out with valuable suggestions
and constructive criticism,” the
release adds.
In his condolence message,
the Chairman of Law Commission Goa, Ramakant Khalap said
that Velho was a man of golden
heart and has left behind indelible mark on the legislative
records through his erudition
and his commitment to social
and political issues.

President of TAG, Tomazinho Cardozo, with the participating students.
HERALD NEWS DESK
PANJIM, JULY 19

In its efforts to involve children in acting and singing in tiatrs, Tiatr Academy of Goa
organized a workshop on tiatr
for the students of Lourdes Convent High School, Saligao recently.
In all 74 students participated
in the workshop.
The workshop was inaugurated by Sr Leandra D’Sa, Manager of the school in the

HERALD CORRESPONDENT
CALANGUTE, JULY 19

plained possible causes and
symptoms of malaria.
Kamat also advised precautions and preventive
m e a s u re s t o c o n t ro l t h e
spread of malaria.
She requested the gathering
to avoid the mosquito bites with
the use of mosquito nets or repellents. Kamat stressed upon
clean surroundings, free of stagnant water, where mosquitoes
make it their breeding grounds.

Guirim school
PTA elected
HERALD NEWS DESK
PANJIM, JULY 19

The general body meeting of St
Anthony High School, Monte de
Guirim’s Parent Teacher Association was held at the school hall,
Monte de Guirim on Saturday.
Tomazinho Cardoso who was
the chief guest delivered a talk
on “Parental Role in Child Education.” He asked the parents
to be more vigilant with their
wards and be better involved
with their study schedule so as
to enable better output.
Tomazinho lauded the efforts
of the management, teachers
and parents for achieving success in the field of education,
art, sports, music and culture.

Marriage course for couples

PANJIM (HND): The Institute of Personality Development,
Panjim will organise a 5-day course on `Marriage’ for couples
and those preparing for marriage. The course is conducted
by Prof Agnel Crasto- Director of the Institute of Personality
Development. The course will start on July 26 from 6 pm to
7 pm. Those interested should contact Prof Agnel Crasto at
Pinto Chambers, Panjim, ph 2435838/9420818302.

Essay contest for schools

PANJIM(HND): The organizers of ‘CMM Centenary celebration’ have informed that the date for submission of essays
for the Essay competition for school students of Std IX and
X has been extended to July 3. The earlier date given for submission of essays was July 10, 2010.
Any further queries from the schools/students in this
matter may be directed to the coordinator at the following address: Ms Leticia Belchior, D-4, Skylark Apts.,
Altinho, Mapusa, Goa. Tel Contact : 2250680, email :
Leticiadebelchior@yahoo.com

Workshop in journalism

PANJIM(HND): The International Centre Goa, JM Foundation
for excellence in Journalism, Goa Union of Journalists, Media
information and Communication centre of India in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung is organizing a three-day
journalism workshop on ‘Enhancing Human development
coverage : Skills for Reporting/Writing’ from July 24 to 26 at
The International Centre, Dona Paula, Goa. The workshop is
part of the series of workshops being organized by ICG for
the last couple of years with the aim of empowering journalists
with the latest skills and knowledge.

Choir singing course

PANJIM(HND): Bal Bhavan has proposed to start the Choir
under the guidance of Dr Gerald Rodricks, well-known personality in theatre and music from the month of September
2010.
This training course will be imparted from 4 pm to 5:30
pm thrice a week.
Likewise, Bal Bhavan has also invited applications for the
children between the age group of 10 to 16 years for the
Choir group to sing the National Integration songs during
the various State level functions.
Interested children between the age group of 10 to 16
years may contact the reception counter of Bal Bhavan,
Campal, Panjim, for the form from 2:30 pm to 5 pm.

Courses for women

PANJIM (HNB): Caritas-Goa will conduct various courses at Dr
Graciano de Santana Ribeiro Empowerment Centre, Bhatkar Vaddo,
Opp Dr Pinto Rosario Hospital in Porvorim.
The courses are specially designed for the benefit and empowerment
of women.
The courses which will be conducted are tailoring (basic
and advanced), machine embroidery, hand embroidery, crochet,
flower making, fabric painting, candle making (only for a
group of seven applicants), bakery (one week during Ganesh
Holidays) and cookery (one week during Diwali Holidays).
For details, contact Sr Mafaldine Pires on 2416716 or
9765256547.

Award for Kelekar

presence of Joe Rose, Anil Kumar
(both veteran tiatr artistes),
Dnanjay Phalkar, Theatre Art
teacher and Chandrika
Padgaokar, Konkani subject
teacher of the school.
The first session was cond u c t e d b y J o e Ro s e , w h o
stressed upon composing of
lyrics of songs and gave an insight into script writing of tiatr
to the students. Anil Kumar
guided the students in acting
by involving children in the

Malaria eradication programme
organised for SHGs at Parra
The Voluntary Health Association of Goa (VHAG) in collaboration with Parra
Panchayat recently organised
a malaria eradication pro gramme for the self-help
groups (SHGs) at Parra.
The sessions were held at four
different places at Pereira Social
Welfare Centre-Verla, Sacred
Heart High School, Canca, Our
Lady of Piedade Chapel, Gama
Vaddo (Parra) and Parra Panchayat Hall.
The groups were guided on
malaria eradication and prevention by the VHAG members.
Addressing the women of the
self-help groups, Mithila Kamat
briefed them on the rise of
malaria in the areas and ex-

UPCOMING EVENTS

He also stressed that participation in sports helped the children to develop their minds.
Earlier, Headmaster, Fr Paul Alvares
welcomed and stressed the need
for hard work in all fields.
Tomazinho Cardozo, Fr Paul
and the executive committee of
PTA felicitated the meritorious
SSCE students who secured distinction. Prizes were also distributed to students who
excelled from KG to Std X.
A patriotic dance was presented by the students. John Lobato de Faria welcomed. The
annual report was read by Fatima
D’Souza. Alba compeered the
function. Chairman, Fr Steve Rodrigues addressed the gathering.

She advised the gathering to
change the water stored in
water tanks, drums, barrels or
other utensils.
She also requested the
women to help in emptying
the broken bottles or co conut shells which collects
rainwater to stop the breeding of mosquitoes.
Sr Edith and Parra Sarpanch
Benedict D’Souza helped in organising the sessions at different
places.
Parra Panchayat is also organising a cleanliness drive on July
24 in tune with the awareness
programme on vector borne diseases.
The drive will be carried
out at 10 am onwards at
Jackni Vaddo and Lobo Vaddo
of Parra.

The Canacona Community
Health Centre (CHC) in association with Hospicio at Margao
and Curchorem CHC conducted
a laparoscopy operation camp.
The laparoscopy operation
was successfully conducted on
15 women from different parts
of Canacona taluka during the
camp held on last Friday.
The operations were conducted by Curchorem gynecologist Dr Lawrence Gomes and
he was assisted by Hospicio
anesthetist Dr Gayatri Sheti, besides two each staff nurses from
Hospicio and CHC Canacona.

teaching learning process.
The concluding function was
attended by Tomazinho Cardozo, President of TAG, who requested the students to take
interest in tiatr, its song and
music because such an attitude
will help in inculcating love towards Goan and Indian culture.
The participating students were
given certificates of participation.
The function was compered
by Chandrika Padgaokar.

PANJIM (HND): Jnanpith Award for the year 2006 will be
presented to eminent Konkani litterateur Ravindra Kelekar
on July 31 at Dinanath Mangeshkar Auditorium, Kala Academy,
Panjim, at 11 am.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar will be the chief guest
and present the award. Chief Minister M Digambar Kamat
will grace the occasion.

Feast of St Ana on Aug 1

PANJIM(HND): The feast of St Ana will be celebrated on
August 1 at St Ana Church, Santana Talaulim in Tiswadi. The
fama will be held on July 22 with the blessing of maddi
followed by Mass at 6 pm.
The novenas will start from July 23 with Rosary at 5.15 pm
followed by Mass, sermon and salve. The vespers will be
held on July 31 at 6.30 pm.On August 1, the feast day, there
will be masses at 6.45 am and 8.30 am.
The concelebrated Mass will be at 10 am, There will also
be Mass in the evening at 4 pm.

Over 300 people from Corlim
and surrounding areas on Sunday morning organized a chain
rally to protest against the proposed widening of the NH4A
highway lane passing through
the Corlim village.
The chain rally, which was organized by Corlim Citizens Civic
and Consumer Forum (CCCCF),
commenced from Mollar Petrol
Pump and ended near Dhulapi
Circle in Corlim. The agitators,
which included young as well
as old, walked a distance of
about 2 kms shouting slogans
against the proposed widening
of NH4A lane. A strong police
force was deployed along the
route.
Speaking to Herald, CCCCF Secretary Baptist Pereira stated that

nBaptist Pereira
stated that the
chain rally a sign
of protest to
inform the State
government that
locals from
Corlim do not
want the NH4A
lane to pass
through Corlim
village, which
would destroy
local houses and
disturb peace in
the village.
the chain rally a sign of protest
to inform the State government

that locals from Corlim do not
want the NH4A lane to pass
through Corlim village, which
would destroy local houses and
disturb peace in the village.
He further said they would continue the agitation till the NH4A
lane is diverted away from
thickly populated areas.
“We will not stop till our demands are met. We will force
the government to take the lane
out from the city and village
area,” added Pereira.
Former Cumbarjua MLA Nirmala
Sawant said the NH4A never
passed through a village and it
has to be outside the village
area. “Therefore, the government should divert the lane outside Corlim village to such an
area so that it does not cause
any harm to the locals,” she
added.

educational and musical award
at the hands of Tourism Minister.
Deepak Dhavlikar, ML A,
Vinayak Vengurlekar, Sarpanch,
Volvoi, Shyamsundar Tari, President of Shree Gajant Laxmi
Saunsthan, Prabhakar Dhage,
Editor of Pudhari, Shri S V Naik
and Prabhakar Tari were present
on the occasion.
Students drawn from different
schools of Marcel, Keri, Volvoi
and Savoi- Verem areas who
have excelled in the last SSC examination were honoured at the
hands of Halarnkar, Shripad
Naik, Deepak Dhavlikar and
Menino Peres on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion the
tourism minister expressed his
gratitude to Shilpakar Prathistahn for honouring him for his
services in social field. He said,

the endeavour of the organizers
will undoubtedly inspire others
to work in different fields vigorously and serve the humanity
in a better way.
Shripad Naik, eulogized the
services rendered by Shilpkar
Pratisthan to encourage local
youth excel in various fields.
Director of Information and Publicity Menino Peres while replying
to the felicitation opined that today
there are officials in the Government
Departments who work with a
sense of social obligation. He lauded
the organizers for having taken the
cognizance of the services rendered
by the felicitated personalities in different areas of human
endeavour.The Tourism Minister
and Deepak Dhavalikar released
the publications brought out by
the organizers.

HE R A L D

GOA

Pg 5

GOA, TUESDAY, 20 JULY, 2010

Monitoring panel recommendations
on mining remains only on paper
BY BINDIYA CHARI
PANJIM, JULY 19

Though a Monitoring Committee (MC) was
constituted by the State Government in October 2008 to look into alleged “illegal mining” after it came under heavy fire from the
Opposition for failing to curb illegal mining
activities, it appears it was just an eye-wash.
Recommendations made by the MC after
visiting about fifty mines are gathering dust
while illegal mining activity goes on unhindered.
Speaking to Herald Dr Claude Alvares,
Director, Goa Foundation (GF), an NGO
which has been instrumental in dragging
many mining companies to High Court for
indulging in illegal mining, emphatically
pointed out that none of the recommendations made by MC have implemented till
date.
The MC visited over 50 mines located in
different parts of the State to check whether
provisions of Forest Conservation Act (FCA),
1980 were violated, and in certain cases
found that mining operations were indeed
conducted in violation of the FCA including
that by a wealthy MLA from South Goa.
When questioned, Arvind Lolyekar, Director, Mines and Geology, said the government has not given any directions
pertaining to recommendations of the MC
however they were forwarded to respective
departments to take action.
When asked if any action has been take

by those departments , he said, he need to
check and would able to reply on Monday
or Tuesday.
The MC has reported that many mines
in operation have violated Section 37 of
Mines and Minerals (Regulation & Development) MMRD Act, by allowing mine to
be operated through Raising Contractor
(RC).
Dr Alavers said authorities do not take
any congnisance of such violations claiming
it is difficult to pinpoint responsibility since
mining lease is held by one party while actual mining activity is carried out by RC. So
even when there is violation of lease conditions, a lease holder easily shirks off his
responsibility saying mining is done by RC
whereas RC claims he can’t be accounted
for any violation as he is not a lease holder.
Moreover, RC is not aware of conditions
on which lease is granted and consequently,
there is great scope for violation of lease
conditions, he says.
Most common violation is that mining
rejects are dumped outside mining lease
area even as environmental clearance does
not permit dumping outside lease area. The
MC in its report has pointed out many such
cases warranting action.
Seby Rodrigues, an activist involved in
highlighting cases of illegal mining, said regional office of Ministry of Environment
and Forest (MoEF) based in Bangalore, has
lot to answer. Mining companies are easily

manipulate MOEF because it allows them
to choose a private agency to carry out Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study.
With EIA being sponsored by mining
company, it is foolish to expect that irregularities, indulged in by the company will
reflect in the EIA report submitted to MoE,
he said.
In 2009, the State Minister for Enviornment, Aleixo Sequeira had written to Union
Minister for Environment and Forest, Jairam
Ramesh urging the need for amendment to
Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006, to the extent that Goa State
Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) will have
say in EIA study.
He pointed out that Enviornmental Clearances (ECs) have been granted by MoEF despite of objections by locals.
The objections are submitted during public hearings but Central Ministry has been
somewhat indifferent towards ground realities in Goa. Since 2003, 141 ECs have
been granted in Bicholim, Sattari, Quepem
and Sanguem, he pointed in his letter.
“ The conditions in EC specify a role of
the MoEF to monitor the conditions stipulated in the EC. It would be ideal that the
State Pollution Control Board should undertake this task. It would be solve local
monitoring problem and stop unhealthy
mining practices,” submitted Sequeira making a case that monitoring should be done
through a local agency.

Primitive ways to bridge
divide in Netravali

HERALD CORRESPONDENT
SANGUEM, JULY 19

The State government may brag
about technology and progress,
but primitive ways are still in
use in remote parts of the State.
Despite assurances from successive governments, residents
in remote Karke Ward of Netravali in Sanguem taluka still
use a rickety wooden bridge to
cross the river during the monsoon.
The Karke ward is inhabited
by over 100 villagers, including
schoolchildren, residing in about
16 houses. Most villagers residing in the village are farmers
and hail from the Gaonkar com-

munity.
Residents have been making
frequent representations to authorities to construct a permanent bridge in the village but
all pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Sources at the panchayat office informed that during Chief
Minister Digambar Kamat’s visit
to the village last year, he had
assured to look into the problems faced by the villagers and
had assured to construct a
bridge in the village.
Following Kamat’s visit to the
village, a fresh representation
was made to the PWD but till
date there has been no positive
reply from PWD authorities.

The wooden bridge has been
constructed by villagers by laying wooden poles. The worst
affected are the schoolchildren
and the elderly who have to be
assisted while crossing over the
bridge.
Such is the situation that parents have to wait on one side
of the bridge during morning
and evening hours to ensure
that their children reach safely
to school and back home.
Villagers informed Herald that
a few residents had accidentally
fallen into the river while crossing the bridge and two villagers
had even lost their lives in the
process.

A local Dental Clinic has
launched ‘Ceramic Dental Prostheses’, a one-off piece that adjusts to fit in with natural set of
teeth in shape and colour.
Dental technician of Heramb
Dental Lab Narendra Asgaonkar
told reporters that the dental
prostheses made of zirconium
oxide is replaced using latest
technologies thus giving a safe
and natural look.
“It is moulded into the metal
into shape of a required tooth
for replacement. The oxide is
much lighter than metal alloys
and tissue friendly hence ideal
for allergic patients,” he said.
The technician bragged that
‘crowns’ and ‘bridges’ made of
zirconium oxide are aesthetic
for the tooth coloured material
has the same translucency as
the natural set of teeth.
Moreover, the treatment
is suitable for even larger
bridges such as implants, he
further said.
Dentist Aquaviva Fernandes
stated that the treatment costs
anywhere between Rs 4000 to
5000 along with an offer of five
year warranty to its patients.
While, its manufacturing is in
Austria, according to the doctor,
the facility in India is available
only with Goa.

Mormugao Sub Divisional Magistrate and Deputy Collector
Levinson Martins has asked the
Assistant Electoral Registration
Officer (AERO) to confiscate the
Election Photo Identity Cards
(EPIC) and delete the names of
a Nepali couple from Dabolim,
who have been accused of
falsely declaring their nationality.
The Nepali couple from
Adarsh Nagar, Dabolim, had recently submitted Form 7 to seek
deletion of their name from Part
8 and subsequently to be added
in Part 11 of newly formed
Dabolim constituency.
While scrutiny of forms and
additional documents submitted
by the applicant, the Mormugao
Mamladar office noticed that
the applicants had submitted a

Civil Supply Office and birth certificate issued by Gao Panchayat
Office, Nepal.
“Perusal of the document
clearly indicates that the nationality of the applicant is Nepal
by birth and they are not entitled
to either have a ration card or
figure in the electoral roll, being
citizens of Nepal,” stated Martins.
The applicants have filed false
deceleration that they are citizen of India which amounts to
false declaration for preparation
of the false documents, said
Martins.
He has directed the Electoral
Registration Officer (ERO) to
take immediate action for deletion of their names and further
confiscate their EPIC card.
“Action should be initiated to
cancel the ration card,” added
Martins.

Martins further revealed
that since the applicant
works with a reputed Goan
c o m p a n y i n Va s c o , t h e re
could be similar cases pertaining to other Nepali citizens in the State.
Interestingly, the same applicant had received an EPIC
card in 2002 from the Mormugao Mamlatdar office and
h e w a s t r a p p e d re c e n t l y
when applied for deletion of
name.
This has exposed lapses in
the Mormugao Mamlatdar
office since a Nepali national
was given an EPIC card in
2002 without verif ying the
documents submitted by the
Nepali.
“The applicant could have
misguided officials in 2002 when
he first got the EPIC card,” suggested Martins.

Despite bragging of a place
where Jesus was baptized,
the Jordan Tourism Board
today conceded that they
don’t have the required infrastructure to encourage
pilgrimage tourism.
“Unfortunately we don’t have
enough two, three and four star
category properties. We have
five star resorts which can cater

to sophisticated travelers,” JTB
consultant Shirish Sharma told
reporters today.
Sharma said that Jordan
tourism’s product is upscale and
they were looking for quality
tourists.
Besides having various best
preserved roman civilization
sites, the country also has a
place where Jesus was baptized
by St John the Baptist.
Jerusalem is also hardly 90

minutes away from this country
although a traveller requires a
visa to go to Israel.
“Pilgrimage tourism is
something that we would
naturally welcome but we
are not positioning ourselves
as a pilgrimage tourism centre,” Sharma said.
JTB has launched a campaign
to advertise their destination
amongst Indian tour operators
by having road shows across the

HERALD CORRESPONDENT
CANACONA, JULY 19

The disbanded administrative
committee and some Velip Mahajans of Shri Mallikarjun Devasthan, Gaondaongrim, have
alleged that despite directions
from the revenue secretary, no
election process has commenced to appoint the new administrative committee for
2010-12.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Ashok Velip,
whose controversial appointment as president of Shri
Mallikarjun Devasthan on
February 21, this year, was
set aside by a tribunal court,
informed that the Secretary
(Revenue) issued an order to
the collector (South) on June
21 to complete a fresh election to appoint the new committee for 2010-12 within a
month’s time.
“But unfortunately, no such
process has commenced even

country.
He said that in the year 2010
there is 93 per cent rise in the
Indian travelers visiting Jordan.
“In the year 2009, 29,000 Indians visited the country and for
the first five months of 2010,
22,000 tourists have already visited,” Sharma added.
Jordan’s tourism industry
contributes for 17 per cent
of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

though one month period will
be over in a couple of days,”
said Velip.
It may be recalled that trouble
broke out at the original election
process, after some Velip Mahajans protested suspension of
some of the rivals earlier on February 14, which led to attack on
the existing committee members.
Based on an order issued by
Canacona mamlatdar, Ashok B
Velip with his team was elected
to govern the administration of
Shri Devasthan Devalaya, Gaondogrim.
However, this process was
challenged by the existing committee, which was upheld and
the committee elected on February 21 was declared void by a
tribunal court.
Citing some rules and regulations governing Devalaya’s
elections, the previous committee under Amarnath Dessai as
president claimed that no more

Siddhanti youngest
girl to get diploma

Ceramic
Dental
Prostheses
launched
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JULY 19

Residents of Karke ward in Netravali-Sanguem cross the wooden bridge in the village.
Photo by Alfred Fernandes

Gaonkarwada-Bicholim has become
the youngest girl to secure the Advance Diploma in software Engineering conducted by CAT.
According to information, the course
is conducted by the Centre for Advanced Technology (CAT) - Pune and
Siddhanti got an ‘A’ grade in the Advance Diploma in Software Engineering.
“We were informed by the institute
that she is the youngest girl in the
country to getthe diploma,” said
her father Arjun Parab.

elections can be held now and
as per the rules, the previous
committee has the right to continue governing the devalaya’s
affairs under the given circumstances.
Addressing the press conference attended among others by
Vithoba Gaonkar, Ashok Biva
Velip, Janu Gaonkar, Adv Praveen
Faldessai, Prabhakar Gaonkar,
Barkello Gaonkar, Nagesh Velip
and Arjun Velip, besides some
velips and gaonkar mahajans of
Shri Mallikarjun refuted such
provisions in the Devalaya laws

and guidance.
They demanded that elections be held immediately as
per the order issued by (Revenue) secretary to Collector
(South).
It is informed that Secretar y (Revenue) kept aside
both elected committees,
the one appointed on February 21 and the one existing
for the previous term and issued directions to appoint
new committee by due
process of elections for the
current term 2010-12.

pg7:Layout 1 7/19/2010 11:01 PM Page 1

OHERALDO

Pg7

GOA, TUESDAY,•20 JULY, • 2010

MP boycotts mela for not being invited to speak
PTI
NARMADA, JULY 19

A BJP member of parliament
walked off Garib Kalyan Mela
here allegedly agitated over not
being invited to podium to
speak.
Bharuch MP Mansukh Vasva
also accused Gujarat Forests and
Environment minister Mangu
Patel of insulting him by not
inviting him to give speech at
the Garib Kalyan Mela,
organised yesterday at Sagbara in Narmada district, which
falls under his Parliamentary

constituency.
“You have not called me to
speak during the function. You
are insulting me in my own constituency," an agitated Vasava
told Patel from the stage in front
of packed audience.
Patel tried to placate Vasava,
but the MP refused to budge
and went on to say, "I have been
working for the tribal since
many years and this is my home.
Why have I not be called to
speak when my name was on
the invitation card."
Sensing the temper of MP
going soar, the organizers

switched off the microphone
following which Vasava walked
off the stage and boycotted the
mela.
“While the chief minister
wants to eliminate middle men
by organising such melas, the
tribal secretary was giving back
door entry to middlemen,"
Vasava alleged while speaking
to media persons later.
Vasava further alleged that
the tribal secretary was using
NGOs of his choice for implementing the tribal welfare
schemes such as Van Bandhu
Kalyan Yojna.
"The secretary is involved in

corruption in the implementation of tribal schemes. I have
also complained inwriting to the
Tribal Welfare minister, but till
date I have not got any reply,"
the BJP MP claimed.
When asked does he expect
disciplinary action against him
by party for his behaviour at the
mela, Vasava said," I will fight
for the truth and the welfare of
the tribals. I don't care what the
consequences be." However, the
Garib Kalyan Mela continued as
per schedule despite temporary
disturbance caused due to
Vasava's outburst.

Bhardwaj interfering in
Karnataka affairs:BJP

Orissa deports
48 infiltrators
to Bangladesh

issue.
'Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa had assured of action (into
illegal mining) and the Lok
Ayukta is looking into it,' she
said.
She refrained from commenting on the role of Reddy brothers' role in the entire issue, but
said the Lok Ayukta was probing. She denied the issue had
resulted in any 'crisis' in the party
in Karnataka.
'There may be problems (in
party and government) which is
common to all. But there is no
crisis,' she said.
On the attack on a TV channel allegedly by RSS workers in
New Delhi last week for airing
reports of terror charges against
some of its leaders, Seetharaman said 'the reports lacked
corraboration' and alleged there
was no verification of facts.
She said that the Delhi police
was looking into the issue of attack on the office of TV channel.
Seetharaman slammed Congress for criticising her party

BHUBANESWAR, JULY 19

PTI
CHENNAI, JULY 19

Charging Karnataka Governor H
R Bhardwaj with 'excessive interference' in the administrative
affairs in that State, BJP today
pinned him as the 'problem' for
putting the state and the ruling
BJP in news for 'all wrong reasons'.
'The governor is the problem.
Constitutionally, he has exceeded his limits,' BJP spokesperson Nirmala Seetharam told
reporters here.
The saffron party has been
dogged by illegal mining of iron
ore in Bellary and the alleged
involvement of cabinet ministers, the Reddy brothers, in that,
allowing opposition Congress
and JD(S) to take up the issue
and even stall the assembly proceedings, she said.
Seetharaman alleged that 'excessive interference' by Bharadwaj, who had even appraised
President Pratibha Patil of the
political climate in the state recently, had 'aggravated' the

‘India should
call off talks
with Pakistan’
PTI

PTI
KoLKATA, JULY 19

Concerned with non-availability
of adequate number of doctors
and specialists particularly in
the rural areas, West Bengal Government is keen to step up the
intake capacity in different tiers
of health education, Health Minister Surjya Kanta Mishra said
in the assembly today.
Replying to the debate on his
department's budget in the
House, Mishra said with the increase by 600 seats, annual student intake capacity for MBBS
course in the state has now enhanced to 1355 from 755 in the
year 2000.
But the State government's
target is to make it at least 2000,
Mishra said.
Stating that Centre has recently urged the state governments to enhance MBBS student

intake capacity in
existing medical colleges,
Mishra said the state government
has examined the infrastructural feasibility in the existing
state medical colleges and
would move to Centre shortly.
It is expected that an additional 695 MBBS seats could be
available in future, he said.
Stating that Medical Council
of India has recently relaxed the
norms relating to teacher-student ratio for the
post graduate degree and
post doctoral courses, Mishra
said that this would further help
increase in the number of seats
for both post graduate and post
doctoral courses.
The total intake capacity for
the BDS course has also
increased from 70 in 200001 to 450 in 2009-10, he added.

Reform in exam process
top priority: Mumbai VC
PTI
MUMBAI, JULY 19

Reform in the university examination system will be the top
most priority for the new Vice
Chancellor of the 154-year-old
University of Mumbai, Dr Rajan
Welukar.
“Our first job is to reform the
examination system by having
in place a professional testing
and assessment
process," Welukar told PTI on
the occasion of the University's
Foundation marked by tree plantation at the Kalina (Vidyanagari)
campus here yesterday.
Since the university is suffering
from enormous delays in assessing examination papers and also
announcing results which affects
the students lives in many ways,
"the reform in examination system is very crucial," he said.
"Once the professionally testing
assessment is in place through
training the teachers and nonteaching staff in all respects of
taking care of the examination
reform, the students will no
longer suffer," Welukar said.
The current form of testing and
assessment system for the three

Two students
drown
PTI
MUMBAI, JULY 19

A hangout plan by three college
students turned into a tragedy
when two of them drowned in
thesea off the coast of Bandra
Bandstand here, police said
today.
Three friends Irfan Moin
Shaikh (18), Masulin Hasmi (18)
and S Jaiswal (17) of Rajarshi
Shahu College in Dharavi went
to Bandra Bandstand this morning, police said.
All three sat on a rock and
after sometime, Irfan and Masulin decided to take a swim in
the sea while Jaiswal stayed
back, police said.
Suddenly, the duo while
swimming were dragged inside
the sea further by huge waves,
police said adding Jaiswal raised
alarm after which local fishermen gathered there and started
searching for them.
Later, fire brigade officials
and police too reached the spot
and conducted search operation
for over two hours following
which they found the bodies of
Shaikh and Hasmi.

Orissa had so far been able to
deport only 48 infiltrators to
Bangladesh while efforts were
on to ensure return of 4,035
others to their native country,
chief minister Naveen Patnaik
said today.
"Though the State government had identified 4,083 infiltrators from Bangladesh, it was
not aware of the presence of infiltrators from any other countr y,” he said replying to a
question in the assembly.
While highest number of
1,649 Bangladeshi infiltrators
were identified in coastal
Kendrapara district, it was followed by 1,112 in Jagatsinghpur
district, 703 in Malkangiri, 313
in district, 150 in Balasore district, 106 in Nabarangpur district
and two in Baragarh district respectively, he said.
"The State government is not
aware about involvement of any
infiltrators in anti-national activities," Patnaik said pointing
out that stringent action would
be taken if any infiltrator was
found .

West Bengal keen to step up
medical courses intake capacity

MUZAFFARNAGAR/MEERUT, JULY 19

Demanding that India should
call off talks with Pakistan, a
senior BJP leader has said the
dialogue was harmful for the
country as it might increase disturbance in Jammu and Kashmir.
"There is no need to start dialogue with Pakistan as it will
be harmful for the country and
will also create disturbance in
Jammu and Kashmir," BJP national vice president Vinay Katiyar said yesterday at
Muzaffarnagar.
Accusing Congress of patronising Naxalites and terrorists,
he said, "Whenever Congress
comes to power at the Centre,
terrorism increases."
Katiyar also charged the UPA
with adopting anti-farmers policy and blamed it for the fuel
price hike.

president Nitin Gadkari for his
"Is (Parliament attack convict)
Afzal Guru Congress' son-in-law"
remarks and said that party's
failure to explain the four year
delay in the execution of his
death showed Congress' "arrogance."
“We had raised a key national
security-related issue. Instead
of replying, they are criticising
us," she said and demanded an
explanation from Congress.
Speaking on issues relating
to Tamil Nadu, she expressed
concern on fake and spurious
drugs and fake marksheets cases
and urged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to act
quickly.
BJP state unit, which has been
holding protests across the state
demanding for scholarship benefits to Hindu students in
schools on par with minority
students, will continue such
protests throughout this month
and national leaders including
Navjiot Singh Sidhu and Smriti
Irani would participate, she
added.

PTI

lakh students spread over 600
colleges with 20 to 25 lakh papers to correct, has not given
the desired results and therefore, it was necessary to reform
the examination system of the
university, Welukar said.
Welukar said another priority
for him during his five year term
would be decentralisation of administrative
processes through technological
intervention and forming subcampuses of the University
which is currently spread in
three campuses -- at Fort in
South Mumbai, Kalina in North
west Mumbai and Ratnagiri in
Konkan region of Maharashtra.
"I am also in the process of identifying the gap in the system
and ways to bridge the gaps to
bring back the glory of University of Mumbai, which once produced great leaders of the
freedom movement," he said.
Creating research culture is another step which the new ViceChancellor is looking for and
"this required
technological access and interconnecting libraries and resource and guides across the

country," he said.
“So collaboration with other
Indian Universities and foreign
universities will be taken up
gradually so that the students
and the faculty members benefit
through exchange programmes,"
he said.
Another crucial area to uplift
the university is the drastic improvement in the infrastructure,
he said adding this would be
taken up in a phased manner.
Provisions will be made in such
a way all the colleges will be
connected so that the students
can get the best of lectures in
his classroom even if the lecturer
or professor is absent on that
particular day, Welukar said.
Attempts are also being to establish contact with the alumni
of the University so that lot of
ideas and knowledge can be exchanged to improve the university in all respects and thus bring
back the glory of the university,
he said.
Campus beautification will be
another major project so that
the students will enjoy nature
while studying, he added.

Two tiger cubs
born in Guwahati
PTI
GUWAHATI, JULY 19

The recent birth of two Royal
Bengal tiger cubs has taken the
total big cat population in
Assam's Orang National Park to
sixteen (16).
Divisional Forest Officer of
Orang National Park S Daila said
today that the villagers had informed them last week that they
had spotted two tiger cubs and
this was later confirmed when
the park authorities spotted the
cubs playing with their mother
near the Kachumari anti-poach-

ing camp.
The cubs -a male and a female- were probably born in
May and the pregnant tigress
was spotted last in March.
Daila said that the park authorities were constantly monitoring the movement of the
two cubs and they both looked
healthy.
Fourteen tigers were detected
in this national park during a
census conducted last year.
Orang National Park, spread
over 78.80 square km on the
northern bank of Brahmaputra,
is a rich wildlife habitat with
several species of animals.
Besides these two cubs, the
Park has also
witnessed the
birth of at
least 10 rhino
calves during
the past few
m o n t h s
which is ''indeed a posit i v e
development'',
Daila
added.

Regarding setting up AIIMS
like institute in the State, Mishra
said initially it was proposed at
Raiganj which
was later shifted to Kharagpur. But nothing has come up
as yet, he regretted saying very
recently the Union health minister has given them assurance
to look into it.
Giving emphasis on preventive measures, Mishra outlined
steps initiated in the state including enhancing the number
of beds upto block-level, while
elaborated on how the State
government has offered costly
medical facilities like MRI and
dialysis in cheaper rates.
Besides improving in infant
mortality rate, the state has also
achieved in various other health
programmes, the minister
claimed.

Police foil
man’s bid to
immolate self
PTI

CoIMBAToRE, JULY 19

A man today attempted selfimmolation on the premises of
the district collectorate, here
today in protest against the 'failure' of police to take action to
restore his daughter from his
mother-in-law, who is looking
after her for the last few years.
However, police foiled his attempt.
According to Sivachandran,
who had married a Muslim
woman and was converted as
Hindu, his mother in law had
taken his daughter som years
ago to look after the girl. However, after taking the daughter,
mother in law converted her
into Islam and refused to return
her to the parents.
Despite lodging complaints,
police failed to take any action
against mother in law or restore
his daugher, he alleged.
Today being the grievances
day, both Sivachandran and his
wife came to the collectorate in
the morning to submit a memorandum. Even as his wife was
preparing to give the memorandum, Sivachandran poured
kerosene on him. However, a
police inspector overpowered
him before lighting matchstick
and took to neraby police station, police said.

Politician gets
extortion call
PTI
MUMBAI, JULY 19

Politician and businessman
Farhan Azmi, son of Samajwadi
Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi, has
received an extortion call allegedly from a suspected member of Ravi Pujari gang, police
said today.
Farhan, who is also husband
of actor Ayesha Takia, lodged a
complaint with Crime Branch
which is probing the matter,
they said.
“According to Farhan, the
caller introduced himself as
member of Ravi Pujari gang, demanded some crores of rupees
as 'protection money' from him
over the phone recently,” a
crime branch official said on
condition of anonymity.
Earlier this year also Farhan
had complained to crime branch
stating that he had received
threatening call from a man
claiming to be associated with
underworld.

OHERALDO

Edit Page Template:Layout 1 7/19/2010 9:58 PM Page 1

OPINION

Pg8

www.oheraldo.in

O HERALD O

Malaria: A Preventable Scourge

Vol No CX No: 186
Goa, Tuesday 20 July, 2010

I

Rajiv’s assassin
not India’s enemy?

ndia’s Home Minister believes that the man who ordered
former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination was not
India’s enemy. Amazed? But it is true. In a public meeting
in Tamil Nadu on Saturday, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram
said about slain Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader
Vellupillai Prabhakaran: “He was not our enemy. We were
opposed to the path chosen by him.” This is a statement
from the man responsible for India’s security! The LTTE
leader had a non-bailable warrant on him for ordering
Rajiv’s assassination.
Rajiv Gandhi was the seventh Prime Minister of India from
1984 to 1989. It was when he was PM that Konkani became
our official language and, as a consequence, Goa got statehood.
In 1989, the Congress lost the election when V P Singh, leader
of the united Janata Dal (JD), became Prime Minister with the
‘outside support’ of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the
Congress, though it was the largest single party, was kept out
of power.
The JD government did not last long, and a mid-term
election was called in 1991. It was when he was campaigning
for this election – just a few days after he had addressed
an election meeting in Panjim – that Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu on 21 May 1991,
by an LTTE woman suicide bomber named Thenmozhi Rajaratnam alias Dhanu, trained by the ‘One-eyed Jack’
Sivarasan.
Rajiv had angered Prabhakaran by pushing the LTTE supremo
to sign the India-Sri Lanka Peace Agreement in 1987, after
which the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was sent in to
end the Sri Lankan Civil War. Old timers will remember that
the steamer service between Mumbai and Goa was stopped
from that year because both ships, ‘Konkan Sevak’ and
‘Konkan Shakti’, were commandeered by the Army to supply
the IPKF.
Very soon, the LTTE broke the ceasefire and declared war
on the IPKF. The conflict raged till the IPKF was unilaterally
withdrawn in early 1990 by the V P Singh government with
significant casualties and a huge loss of face. Prabhakaran was
desperate to ensure that Rajiv did not once more become
India’s Prime Minister, so he ordered his killing.
The LTTE’s initially denials of responsibility for the murder
were comprehensively overturned decades later in a clear confession by its international spokesman Anton Balasingham,
who repeatedly told an Indian TV channel in a 2006 interview
that the killing was a “great tragedy, a monumental historical
tragedy which we [LTTE] deeply regret.”
Can a person who ordered the assassination of a former
prime minister of the country not be an enemy of the country? Let us remember that Prabhakaran’s LTTE also went to
war against the Indian Army. Mr Chidambaram is an accomplished corporate lawyer, apart from being a seasoned
politician. How can he not be aware of the consequences
when India’s Home Minister gives Prabhakaran a clean chit?
The LTTE leader may be dead, but does that acquit him of
his crimes?
One could conceivably argue that Mr Chidambaram was
merely being populist in the Tamil heartland. He was speaking
in Virudhunagar, the home constituency of MDMK chief Vaiko,
the LTTE’s strongest supporter. But can Mr Chidambaram
simply forget that he has limits and responsibilities as Union
Home Minister? Besides, Vaiko was defeated in his bastion in
the 2009 Lok Sabha election by a low profile Congress nominee
named Manick Tagore, with a margin of 15,000 votes. This
means the issue is not emotive enough to make India’s Home
Minister lose his bearings.
Are we to assume that this is the official stand of the Congress
and the government on the issue? If not, Mr Chidambaram
owes the country an explanation.

For Malaria, an ounce of prevention is worth hundreds of pounds of cure, says Dr naDia Rangel PintO

T

he disease that is foremost in our minds
during the monsoon is the parasitic disease
Malaria. It is one of the oldest diseases, and
transmitted by a familiar vector – the female
anopheles mosquito.
Besides Plasmodium Vivax or common malaria,
the more dangerous Plasmodium Falciparum
malaria is present in Goa. In spite of the dedicated
efforts of the Health Department, cases still come
up throughout the year, though they peak in the
monsoon. Recently, we have seen a reduction in
cases.
Goa can conquer Malaria, if we all do our bit.
Every individual’s responsibility is personal protection. At the household level, the use of mosquito nets on beds, in particular for children and
old people is advisable; more so in homes where
the windows are not screened with meshes.
But this is easier said than done. The people
must be educated about its importance, before
they suffer from Malaria. Nets distributed free
have occasionally been used as pillows by migrant
workers, who probably don’t know about them
and cannot afford a comfortable headrest.
Long-lasting insecticidal nets that work for 3
to 5 years are available at government health
centres at a nominal cost. They are an effective
and marvellous anti-malaria measure for excessively exposed to mosquito bites. Builders have
a social responsibility to provide these nets to
the labourers they employ, instruct them in their
proper use and get them regularly tested for
Malaria. A word of caution: Do not allow infants
to chew on the net, as it may cause them to
ingest the insecticide. Plain bed nets can also be
used, but they do not have as great a repellent
effect, as they do not kill the mosquitoes that
land on them.
For those who don’t like using bed nets, mosquito repellents containing synthetic pyrethroids
like allethrins have been approved by the World
Health Organisation (WHO). Mosquito mats, for
example, are allethrin-based. The mat’s rate of
knockdown on mosquitoes is the maximum in
the first two hours, and gradually wanes over the
next 6 to 8 hours. Therefore, exposure to infants
and children and those with respiratory allergies

Flying Fatalities
or asthma should be avoided in the first two
hours. Discarding mats safely after use is important
to prevent toddlers from accidentally eating them
and being poisoned. All electrical anti-mosquito
vapourisers should be disconnected when not in
use, and kept out of reach of children.
Another convenient and easy-to-use personal
protection is insecticidal creams and lotions containing DEET (diethyltoluamide) or NN Diethylbenzamide. They have no untoward side effects,
unless the user is allergic to an ingredient. It can
be applied to the bed linen of very young children
if skin application poses a problem. Just for information, keep watches away; it can damages
plastic watch crystals.
In July, Goa is conducting a cleanliness drive.
With increasing urbanisation, just three out of
the 52-odd species of female anopheles mosquito
rule the roost in malaria transmission; container
breeders, rice field breeders and foothill breeders.
The most common breeding sites in Goa are
clean, uncovered stagnant water stored in buckets,
roof water tanks, curing water at construction
sites, unused bathrooms in unused apartments,
etc.
The simple solution is to changing any stored
water at least once a week, and to properly cover
stored water that needs to stay longer. For curing
water at construction sites, builders can report
to the nearest government health facility. Government health personnel will treat it with insecticides Temephos or Fenthion.

Breeding sites like wells or ponds, can be
stocked with biolarvicidal fish, which can be obtained from the closest health centre. The Poecelia
Reticulata (better known as ‘guppy’ after Swedish
researcher Robert Guppy, who identified its unique
ability to eat about 40 mosquito larvae per day)
are easily available. The number of fish will be
according to the surface area of the water body.
Just carry your own container for the fish. Other
fish like Aplochielus blockii (locally called ‘kankatre’) can ingest about 150 larvae, and help keep
the disease at bay.
For those who don’t like to use chemicals, natural repellents with neem and citronella oil have
shown promising results. They are available as
creams, sprays, roll ons and lotions. Solutions
containing ethylbutylaminopropionate are also
used. But, whatever you apply, never put it on
the fingers of infants that are teething.
Electronic buzzers repel mosquitoes by inaudible high frequency sound, while repellent patches,
not so easily available, can be stuck on furniture
and infants’ strollers, and seem to have a protective
effect without direct contact. Innovative methods
keep coming, but their goal is the same.
Close windows before dusk. Put long, lightcoloured clothing on children at playtime. Mosquitoes are attracted to the dark, to excessive
perspiration and to floral fragrances of perfumes.
If anybody in your family has a fever that lasts
more than three days, go to the doctor. Early diagnosis, as well as prompt and complete treatment

is absolutely essential to save lives. Long-lasting
fevers should not be treated without medical advice.
Watch out for the following symptoms: Fever,
headache, muscle and joint pains, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain. Some of the danger
symptoms are: altered consciousness, breathing
difficulty, convulsions, inability to drink, persistent
vomiting and severe pallor.
Delay in diagnosing malaria, especially in children, is detrimental to health. In Falciparum
Malaria, haemoglobin can drop to dangerously
low levels, requiring blood transfusions, apart
from other complications. Those most at risk are
young children, travellers and pregnant woman.
Once a simple prick and blood smear is obtained
and examined at the closest health facility, reports
are available within 12 to 24 hours. If the test is
negative but symptoms continue, repeated testing
is advisable.
In an endemic Malaria area like Goa, preventive
medication (chemoprophylaxis) is of little value,
as exposure is continuous and the local population
is semi-immune. But it is recommended for travellers from non-immune countries as well as Indians who have lived abroad for long and lost
immunity. Irrational use of preventive medication
can lead to drug resistance.
Prevention is the best cure for Malaria. If this
is not achieved, early diagnosis and prompt and
complete treatment can cure. The patient follow
the doctor on how to take the medication, any
adverse effects and when he should return for
further testing to confirm the complete cure and
for prevention of relapses. After the cure, it is
important to continue preventive measures, to
prevent a fresh attack. Recurrent attacks of malaria
have long-term consequences, and an ounce of
prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Let us, each one of us, make an individual and
community effort to control these terrible maladies. Preventive measures spell success: I believe
+ I can + I will = I did. A Goa sans vector borne
diseases may not be a distant dream.
(Dr Nadia Rangel Pinto, MD, DNB, is faculty in
Preventive & Social Medicine at Goa Medical College
and Hospital, Bambolim)

land ahoy!

The accidental activist

I

have been helping a friend with selling her property, and it has
been quite a revelation. It makes me wonder how I ever managed
to buy my little piece of paradise. I wandered into the sale all
wet behind the ears and dewy eyed. I had no idea what papers I
should ask for or what I should check. Somehow everything came
together. But this time around I am getting a long hard look at
what should actually go into the purchase/ selling of property .
And so, for all of you who might benefit, here is a list of all the
papers that you need in place and sorted if you want a clean, safe
transaction.
Since land sale in Goa is complicated by the Portuguese connection, first you need all the available Portuguese papers. These are
– Matriz Predial (Old Portuguese Land Document), The Cadastral
Survey Plan (Old Survey Plan) and the Registo de Agrimesura ( Old
Surveyors Register). Then you need the papers that come with the
Survey done in 1971. You will need the Survey Plan and the Form
I & XIV. You must verify that there are no tenancy or other claims.
For this you need to get the Title documents which clarify who actually owns the land. These can be any of the following: Gift deed/
Sale deed/ Will/ Succession deed/ Relinquishment deed/ Inventory.
You will also need to trace how the title came to the current owner.
It is crucial that the person selling also be the one who has his

By Venita Coelho

name on the House Tax and Land Tax Receipts, otherwise you
could end up with yet another claimant. While you’re at it, also
get the water bill and the electricity bill and check whose name is
on it.
You better get all the details of any litigation that is currently
on for the property. This should include details of any cases filed
by the Panchayat. You don’t want to buy a house and then discover
that it is illegal and awaiting demolition. And to be sure that the
house is fully above board, you need a whole list of documents.
You will need the approved plan from the PDA/ the Panchayat
records and the Town Planning Department. Check that what has
been built matches the approved plan. If there are further later additions, you need to be sure that these too have their permissions
and are legal. You should have a copy of the construction license
and permissions as well as a copy of the Conversion Sanad. If the
land has been converted, you will need the details of the conversion,
otherwise the details of the zoning that it falls into under the
Town Planning Act. Is it indeed settlement, or are you being fobbed
off with orchard or agricultural land? Lastly you will need the
Completion Certificate of the Architect, and the Occupancy certificate
issued by the Panchayat.
If your land is close to the river or the sea, get the details of the

distance from the High Tide line. In these days of CRZ laws, this is
crucial. You must check if any part of the land has a slope of more
than 25%. You will be unable to build on this part under the current
rules. Also check if the property requires any part of it filled up, or
is defined as low lying. All this is crucial for future constructions.
Also, for any house it is important to have the access details. You
don’t want to discover the hard way that it belongs to a neighbour
who plans to construct a five storey building right in front of your
house and leave you no way to get into your front door.
In these days of uncertainty over the status of land bought by
foreigners, it would be best to consult a lawyer for special advice
if the seller is a foreign national. If there is a bank loan or mortgage
on the property, you will need all the papers of that as well.
I have heard just too many horror stories of land sold without
the proper papers and all the resultant chaos and confusion. If you
are buying your piece of paradise – make sure it comes with all
the appropriate documents. It’s a long hard haul getting all the papers together, but worth it. If you are an activist, make sure you
have every single piece of paper! When the big guns try to get
you, or the Panchayat decides to make your life hell – it’s nice to
know that you have all the documentation needed to tell them
where they get off.

Letters to the Editor
Problem Princess
Valmiki Faleiro, Margao
Kudos on your editorial ‘Princess diaries’
(Herald, 19 July). You have hit the nail on
the head. You have spoken for Goa’s silent
majority.
I have said this before in these columns
and will say it again: if the River Princess is
to be removed with the least possible damage to the environment, the job must be
entrusted to a tried and tested local party.
Madgavkar Salvage are not peddling produce
that can be sold in Candolim today and quietly shifted to Singapore tomorrow. They
have an unassailable track record in underwater salvage, in India and overseas.
Even if their timeframe is a tad longer
and costs arguably higher (which is apparently not the case), the job would be safer
in their hands, because they are a Goan
company; they will not hurt Goa. In any

100 Years Ago

event, are rules not bent or modified, virtually on a daily basis?

Kickback crisis
Irineu Gonsalves, Verna
The editorial ‘Princess Diaries’ (Herald, 19
July) is timely and appropriate. The bureaucracy is the bedrock on which the venality
of politicians rests. These babus collude
with politicians to milk the exchequer, and
it is hardly surprising that the Madgavkars
are cold shouldered.
Here is a reputed Goan firm that has executed complicated works and has a high
reputation. Anil Madgavkar’s elder brother
Anand is in the forefront of Goa’s fight
against any injustice. It gives the impression
that their only fault is that they are blueblooded Goans and don’t offer kickbacks.
The Madgavkars should have bagged the
contract purely on their commitment as
they do all their work on a no-cure-no-pay
basis. What more assurance do the authorities need?

The “Comunidades” of Aldona, Sircaim,
Candolim, and Revora are going to contribute for the celebration of the re-conquest of Goa with Rs. 25, 5, 10, and 5
respectively.

Celebration Time

The agricultural community from Serula
has sanctioned a spending amount of Rs.
50, the same being divided into Rs. 25
towards the celebration of the re-conquest and Rs. 25 to purchase a portrait
of Afonso de Albuquerque to be placed
next to the portrait of the benevolent
King D. Manuel II at the Sessions Hall.

Maharashtra Tour

It is reported that the Viscount of Pernem
along with his vast retinue is going to
undertake a tour to Kolhapur and other
important cities of Maharashtra.

This refers to the news report ‘Princess bid
invalid’ (Herald, 18 July). As local residents
of Dando, Candolim, we are most affected
by beach erosion owing to the MV River
Princess.
We were in favour of the Madgavkars salvaging the River Princess, but they will take
three years. By that time, Dando and probably the rest of Candolim may disappear.
So we want the tender to be given to
Titan Salvage, which is less expensive and
will take only six months. They have the required machinery, which the Madgavkars
do not. We want to be saved from the disaster bestowed on us by Anil Salgaocar.

Useless Mapusa Council
Floriano Lobo, Goa Su-Raj Party
Jyoti Shetgaonkar is absolutely right. Chairperson of the “Useless Mapusa Municipal
Council” Mrs Bhakta, should have done the
following when the Shiv Sena goons
marched to the municipality:
1. Not given in to their stupid demand
for a Marathi board: this is not Maharashtra

Letter of the Day

A lady of substance
Cicero Lourenco, Curtorim
Much has been written about Nadia Torrado’s death. Nadia’s mother, Sonia, is a teacher
in Loyola High School, Margao, for the past 30 years. She lost her husband a few years
ago. I was a student of Loyola in the ’80s. She happened to be my teacher.
To be frank and honest, one of the few things I will always cherish is to have Teacher
Sonia as one of the guiding lights in my life. No matter whether the court of law
convicts her or not, my firm conviction will continue to be that she did her duty as a
teacher with all the love, affection, sincerity, loyalty, dedication and character that the
vocation demands.
Among her students are politicians of all hues as also the children of politicians.
They have a voice, but have chosen to keep mum. Not many have come forward in her
time of distress.
Through this column, let Teacher Sonia know that her suffering and harassment will
not go in vain. The very politicians and law enforcers who have made her undergo this
humiliating agony after being a teacher of character for the past three decades will
meet a fate much worse, judged by providence itself.
Today, I only say thanks to my teacher for teaching me the English with which I
wrote the few sentences above.
but Goa, and Goa’s official language is
Konkani.
2. Not given in without a resolution
passed by the Council, and after consulting
higher authorities.
The Shiv Sena has no business to enforce
Marathi boards in Goa. If at all, local language
boards should be in Konkani. There has
been no demand for this as Goa is a cosmopolitan state, not a Maharashtra small town.

For Sonia, jail and
for tainted cops, bail?
Diana Pinto, Nagoa
Their latest ‘bold’ move by the Goa Police
in the Nadia Torrado case investigation is
truly amazing. The unfortunate Sonia Torrado now not only has to contend with the
loss and of her child, but also bear continuous and sustained police pressure on her
family.
While it is true that the rule of law must
prevail, there is also a ‘spirit’ with which
the authorities should apply the law. Sonia
Torrado is no hardened criminal. She is not
an alleged drug dealer who is putting an

entire generation of young Goans into jeopardy. She is just a sorrowing mother who
will forever have to live with the unfortunate
circumstances of her child’s death. She may
have made some mistakes and wrong
choices, but which of us has not?
It is a tragedy that the cops who allegedly
sold drugs seized by the police from peddlers were swiftly and conveniently released
on bail.
Destruction and tampering of evidence
was apparently of no concern to the Crime
Branch in that case. Helpless women, it
seems, are easy targets for our ‘brave’ policemen, compared to the drug mafia and
real criminals, who walk the soil of Goa
scot-free.

Joker’s justice
Fatima Sardinha, Margao
The Crime Branch seems determined to do
justice to Nadia’s soul. But why did the same
justice not prevail in the case of the poor
women allegedly strangulated to death by
Mahanand?
Why was Sonia not allowed to meet her
advocate, as Adv Radharao Gracias has

stated? The prosecution says that Sonia is
needed in custody for interrogation. If so,
why wasn’t arrested a month ago; she never
applied for anticipatory bail or went underground!
Mahanand’s wife was given police protection; Nadia’s mother got police custody.
Drug peddlers are allowed to use cell phones
in jail; Sonia is not allowed to meet her
counsel! Is this justice?

Ministry stakes
Marcos Alemao, Varca
It is not surprising that former Transport
Minister Pandurang Madkaikar has refused
Chairmanship of the Goa State Infrastructure
Development Corporation (‘Madkaikar rejects GSIDC chairmanship’, Herald, 16 July).
It is natural to want to make easy money as
a minister.
There are elected MLAs who never demand a ministry. It is not necessary to be a
minister to carry out developmental work.
I do not understood why Mr Madkaikar is
insisting on a ministry.
RTO inspectors appointed during the
tenure of Mr Madkaikar apparently had to
shell out a huge amount to get their appointments. Is this is the reason Mr Madkaikar wants his ministry back?

Obscene billboard
Reo Cunha, Moira
People standing at Mapusa bus stand or entering Mapusa market through the bus stand
must have noticed two huge hoardings that
put ordinary people to shame. They advertise underwear using a semi-naked male
model, similar to the ‘kaxtti’ of olden days.
Do we need such obscene pictures? The
authorities should remove the board and
take action on the advertising agency.

Not an inch more
Anthony M Dias, Nuvem
The front page news report ‘Three highway
stretches to be re-inspected’ (Herald, 13 July)
says the re-inspection will be done by the
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
It is a shame that NHAI is dictating to the
Government of Goa. Goans cannot and will
not accept the NHAI’s dictates. Goans want

the highway to be only 35 metres, and
not an inch more.
A daylight robbery is being committed
against the people of Goa by grabbing
their precious land, and the people’s representatives – both MPs and MLAs – are
nowhere to be seen or heard. It is clear
that the Congress government is not for
the people but for the moneybags. Why
can’t the state government have its way
when the Congress is ruling at the centre
too?

Poisonous fruits
A concerned citizen, Vasco
A serpent persuaded Eve to eat fruits
from the forbidden tree. Eve gave some
to Adam, who also ate the fruit. As a result, God exiled them from Eden… But
nowadays, one has no choice except to
eat the forbidden fruit. A few days back,
Health Authorities conducted raids and
seized chemical substances for artificially
ripening fruit. Nothing has been heard
about any follow-up action.
Fruits like robesta bananas are ripened
with chemicals and sold openly throughout Goa with impunity.
The claim of fruit vendors that they
ripen the bananas using incense sticks is
misleading. Robesta bananas normally
require at least 3 to 4 days to ripen. In
the market, green bananas are brought
from outside Goa and, in a day or two,
ripened and sold.
The authorities should be vigilant and
proactive to protect public health. The
public should avoid consuming artificially
ripened fruits. NGOs and social workers
should educate people to identify artificially ripened fruit.

Female clergy
Paul Rodricks, Caranzalem
The Congregation for the Doctrine of
Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog,
has unjustly labelled women’s priesthood
as the ‘most serious crime’ of faith, on
par with the far greater crime of paedophilia committed by some male clergy.
(‘Vatican opposed women priests’, Herald,
16 July).

opinionatEd UPA to deliberate
Struggle against an on strategy for
arbitrary fee hike monsoon session

O

By Karen Fernandes

ur struggle against an arbitrary fee hike seems never
ending, with us parents, sticking to our guns and insisting that the Act be implemented by the Government,
and the Management of these institutions intent on making a
fast buck at the expense of both the parents and the teachers,
with the students as the ultimate sufferers. While the past year
hasn’t been great by any standards, with individuals in the school
and management trying to victimize parents pointing out to the
wrong done, and also misleading parents ignorant of the Act,
the current academic year doesn’t seem any different.
This academic year has begun in a similar manner to the way
it ended last year, with a demand for fees, supposedly, according
to the directives given by the Education Department . I suppose,
the spadework for the purpose of issuing this circular was done
towards the fag end of the vacations, with a few teachers, parents
who benefit from the support extended to the management of
private schools and the management themselves involved. Well,
these educationists, now intent on commercializing education,
in their greed for money, quite forgot or chose to ignore the
matter, that certainly exists in Court till date, stating that the
recommendations given by the Committee formed, as their base
to formulate this new fee structure. According to the circular issued by the Government highlighting the recommendations
given by the committee, Rs.1,350/- and Rs.1,750/- , were the
maximum recommended fees per month, for a maximum of 25
students per class. While, the managements of these Government
recognized unaided schools followed the figures to the tee, they
intentionally chose to ignore the maximum number of students
that govern these figures. They also appear to have chosen to
confuse parents with regard to a fee hike, employing the services
of a few of their trusted lieutenants from within us parents.
They were surely running out of patience as they chose to ignore
the call given by the Education Minister to scrap these recommendations after protests from a large section of parents. Some
of these schools went to the extent of demeaning the role played
by the P.T.A., besides never entertaining their suggestions.
These actions, of demanding higher fees than the previous
year, without approval, as some of the circulars openly suggest,
is daylight robbery and an open challenge to the Government
authorities and more importantly contradictory to the Goa School
Education Act 1984. This should force one and all to believe
that either they couldn’t care less for those in power, or our
ministers are hand-in-glove with them. When our ministers are
hand-in-glove with drug peddlers(ruining families in the state),
sex rackets (how desperate can they get ), illegal mining and
selling of land(they call themselves aam aadmi), they being handin-glove with corrupt individuals in the management of these
institutions, who dare to call themselves educationists at the
drop of a hat, isn’t really surprising. Now that these schools have
challenged section 19(3), can the Education Minister explain his
act of dragging his feet on getting the court to apply section
19(4) to the defaulters, which spells out a stiff penalty and imprisonment? It is equally strange, that we have entrusted the
job of educating our children to these characters, who have no
moral value themselves. Is this the way you define honesty as a
teacher, principal educationist? The answer is ‘no’ and will remain
‘no’. The fight goes on and we parents will not let go, even if it
comes to the point of staging protests on the streets to expose
the irregularities in these Government Recognised Unaided
Schools. Get that message loud and clear. Hats off to the parents
who are willing to fight the cause, as there is a God above and
it is only Hewho can reward you. How can the management of
government recognised school challenge authority?

CORRECTION
The author of the article ‘Kidney: Silent work horse’
on 18 July was given wrongly as Dr Ronald K May. The
author of the article is Dr Amol Mahaldar, Consultant
Nephrologist at Manipal Hospital, Goa.
We regret the error.

PTI
NEW DELHI, JULY 19

With the opposition gearing up
to put the government on the
mat on several issues, including
price rise, a meeting of the
United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
leaders will be held here this
evening to deliberate on the
strategy for the monsoon session of parliament beginning
next week.
Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and UPA Chairperson
Sonia Gandhi would interact
with the leaders of the allies in
the meeting.
The opposition is likely to
raise the issues of fuel price
hike, the Bhopal gas tragedy
case, unrest in Kashmir and talks
with Pakistan. It is also likely to
attack the government over a

series of train accidents in recent
months, including the one today
in West Bengal.
The opposition had given
hints of working together on
the issue of price rise by organising a 'Bharat Bandh' on July 5.
Congress, on its part, is planning to target the BJP over the
illegal mining scam in Karnataka.
The government will also
have to take a view on when to
bring the controversial Civil Nuclear Liability Bill.
Condolences: Congress President Sonia Gandhi today condoled the loss of lives in the
train accident in West Bengal's
Birbhum district. She conveyed
her deep condolences to the bereaved families and wished
speedy recovery to the injured.

The Haryana government today
urged the Centre to grant liberal
financial assistance and raise
the norms and rates of compensation for the flood- affected
people in the state.
The request was made by the
State's senior administrative secretaries during their meeting
with a four-member high powered Inter-Ministerial Central
Team which visited the flood affected areas in Ambala today.
The team was led by Joint
Secretary Home Affairs R P Nath,
who was accompanied by Department of Agriculture and Cooperation Director and
Directorate of Wheat Development Ghaziabad Dr G K Chaudhary, Director in Ministry of
Power R K Verma and Senior Regional Director in Union Ministry
of Health
and Family Welfare Dr Amarjeet Kaur, an official spokesman
said here.
The Central team was briefed

by the senior officers of the
State government and district
administration about the damages and losses suffered in the
recent floods.
Haryana Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary,
Irrigation, S S Dhillon said that
the rate of compensation was
very low for the damage caused
to houses and fields in the
floods.
While speaking to media persons, leader of the team R P
Nath said that there had been
substantial loss due to the floods
in the region and the administration has done significant
work.
"The team would submit its
detailed report of the losses
caused due to unprecedented
floods to the Central government. The report would be the
basis for financial assistance to
the people," he added.
The team also visited floodaffected areas of Dhulkot, Baldev
Nagar, Rai Market road and
Mochi Mandi Chowk, Goverdhan
Nagar and Naggal, SYL and Nar-

IN BRIEF
3 sisters die, another in hospital

Undertrial found dead in jail

Morigaon (Assam): An undertrial was today found dead under
mysterious circumstances in Assam's Morigaon district jail here,
official sources said.
The accused, Nihar Bordoloi, had not complained of any illness
or uneasiness but was found dead in his cell by jail authorities
this morning.
The cause of his death was yet to be ascertained and his body
has been sent for post-mortem to Morigaon Civil Hospital.
Bordoloi was lodged in the jail for the last three months after
he was arrested for being allegedly involved in the killing of a
neighbour.

Lightning kills two labourers

BADAUN (UP): Two labourers were today killed and five others
injured when lightning struck them in Bharkuiyan village of Civil
Lines area here, police said.
Rajpal and Toti Singh were killed on the spot when lightning
struck them, SSP D K Chowdhury said.The injured, including
owner and son of a brick klin, were rushed to the hospital, where
their condition was stated to be stable.

Two brothers hacked to death

GONDA (UP): Two brothers were hacked to death and as many
family members injured by another brother
and his sons allegedly over a family tiff in Itiyathok area, a
senior officer said here today.
Bhadahi Sahu (45) and his brother Barsati Sahu (55) were
hacked to death yesterday by their brother Feran, his sons Dhani,
Bani and others in Bhagwanpur village, about 30 kms from the
district headquarters, Superintendent of Police Ankaj Sharma
said.

Abducted farmer found dead

MUZAFFARNAGAR, A farmer, who was allegedly abducted by
a gang for ransom, was found dead at Sindhawali village in the
district, police said today.
Vinod Kumar (27) was abducted by six persons yesterday.
The gang also demanded ransom of Rs 2 lakh from Kumar's
family, they said.
In a separate incident, an ex-army jawan Vikas (30) was shot
dead by unidentified persons at Barwala village in the district
yesterday.
--

wana Branch near Ishmallpur.
Later the team headed for
Ismailabad, Thol, Shanti Nagar,
Shahbad, Parakeet, Jyotisar,
Bibipur Lake of district Kurukshetra and Dhand, Keorak and
Kaithal Town, Guhla-Cheeka,
Sheo-Majra and Bhatian of district Kaithal.
Financial Commissioner and
Principal Secretary Power Madhusudan Prasad, Financial Commissioner and Principal
Secretary of Agriculture Roshan
Lal, Financial Commissioner and
Irrigation Principal Secretary S
S Dhillon, Commissioner Ambala
Division, Deputy Commissioner
and Superintendent Police and
a number of other senior officers
also accompanied the team.
Venod Sharma and Anil Vij
(both MLAs) also accompanied
the team.
Meanwhile, the water had
considerably receded from flood
affected areas of Ambala, Kurukshetra, Fatehabad, Sirsa and
Kaithal.

Train mishap
serious lapse,
opines Lalu
PTI
PATNA, JULY 19

Former Railway Minister Lalu
Prasad today described the train
disaster in Birbhum district of
WestBengal as a case of serious
lapse.
"I don't understand why such
accidents are taking place,"
Prasad said.
"This is a sad incident and a
serious lapse," the RJD supremo
told reporters here.
At least 60 people were killed
and over 90 passengers injured
when a train in high speed tore
through the rear of another at
the Sainthia station in Bhirbhum
district of West Bengal, after it
apparently overshot the signal
in the small hours of the day.
Prasad, however, parried a
question about allegations that
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee was concentrating on West
Bengal politics ignoring her department.

Delhi HC dismisses
Sajjan’s bail plea
PTI
NEW DELHI, JULY 19

The Delhi High Court today dismissed senior Congress leader
Sajjan Kumar's petition challenging a trial court's order to frame
charges against him in a 1984
anti-Sikh riots case.
Former Outer Delhi MP Sajjan
Kumar is facing prosecution in
two cases in which he has been
accused of inciting a mob
against Sikh community in the
aftermath of former prime minister Indira Gandhi's assassination on October 31, 1984,
leading to killings of several persons.
In the order, Justice Vipin
Sanghi questioned the motive
of Delhi Police for cancelling the
FIR against the politician when
the matter was still being
probed by the CBI.
A trial court had termed the
case as "untraced" in July 2008
after the Delhi Police filed a cancellation report stating that the
complainant was not traceable.
Rejecting the plea of Kumar,
Justice Sanghi directed the trial

court to hold the proceedings
against him expeditiously in the
anti-Sikh riots cases.
The trial court had in May this
year framed charges under Sections 302 (murder), 395 (dacoity), 427 (mischief to
property), 153A (promoting enmity between different communities) and other provisions of
the IPC paving the way for trial
of Kumar and five others.
CBI had accused Kumar of
provoking people against members of a particular community
during the carnage that led to
the killing of five persons in
Delhi Cantonment area.
Besides Kumar, other accused
in the case are Balwan Khokhar,
Krishan Khokhar, Mahender
Yadav, Captain Bhagmal and
Girdhari Lal.
CBI had filed two
chargesheets against Kumar and
others on January 13 in the riots
cases registered in 2005 on the
recommendation of Justice G T
Nanavati Commission which inquired into the sequence of
events leading to the riots.

Left govt, church in Kerala Bihar legislature gets off to a
headed for collision course noisy start, seek CM’s ouster

– Editor

Kaushambi (UP: Three sisters died, while another was admitted
to a hospital in serious condition
after they allegedly consumed poison in Kokhraj area here,
police said today.
The sisters allegedly committed suicide last night at Karaiti
village, SP Kripa Shankar Singh said, adding the police was trying
to ascertain the reason behind taking such an extreme step.

School girls shielding themselves with an umbrella during monsoon in Lucknow on Monday.

PTI

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM,
JULY 19
The ruling CPI(M) and powerful
Catholic Church in Kerala are
headed for a collision course
once again with the apex body
of bishops issuing a pastoral letter urging the Christian community to choose only
"God-fearing" and "selfless" candidates in polls.
The Kerala Catholic Bishops
Council (KCBC) circular, read out
in most churches across the
state before the Sunday congregations yesterday, was apparently aimed at the civic polls
that are round the corner and
the assembly elections less than
a year away.
The bishops also called upon

the faithful not to get duped by
independent candidates often
put up by parties to garner votes
outside their political sphere of
influence.
The CPI(M) leaders were quick
to react to the KCBC letter dubbing it as a “politically prejudiced” move to help anti-Left
forces and secure the narrow
interests of the church establishment.
The reference to "independents" in the KCBC communiqué
was seen by Left circles as an
allusion to the Left parties fielding non-party nominees, especially from the minority
communities, as it had done in
parliament and assembly polls
in the past.
The church sources, however,
denied the charge maintaining

that the letter only reflected
genuine Christian concerns and
that elections should be an opportunity for the “good and
earnest” persons to emerge as
the people's representatives.
Kerala Finance Minister T M
Thomas Isaac described it as an
attempt by the bishops to meddle in politics by seeking to turn
elections into a “test of faith”.
Isaac, a CPI(M) Central Committee member, said that the
move to reduce elections into
a referendum on faith at the
cost of real issues like price rise
and well-being of all communities was not only unfortunate
but also fraught with “dangerous
consequences”.
Ever since the LDF government came to power four years
ago, the Catholic church had repeatedly come out against its
polices, especially those pertaining to the education sector.
The church has accused the
government of implementing
its "hidden agenda" of infusing
the curriculum with atheistic
and material contents to serve
its ideological purposes.

Opposition party MLCs demonstrating inside Bihar Legislative Council on the first day of the monsoon session, in Patna on
Monday.
PTI
PATNA, JULY 19

The two houses of Bihar legislature today got off to a noisy
start with opposition parties,
including RJD-LJP combine, Congress and Left parties, demanding immediate resignation of
Nitish Kumar government in the
light of Patna High Court's order
of a CBI probe.
The Patna High Court had last
week ordered a CBI inquiry into
alleged irregularities of Rs
11,412 crore in execution of de-

velopment and welfare schemes
between April 1, 2002 and
March 31, 2008.
Soon before the brief five-day
session of the state legislature
started this morning, the opposition members waving placards
demanded immediate resignation of Nitish Kumar government
were seen demonstrating in the
main portico of the State assembly.
“Nitish Kumar should immediate resign as CM. His government be sacked if he fails to quit

Maoist attacks affecting education in Jharkhand
PTI
RANCHI, JULY 19

Eight-year-old Ritu Kumar and
15-year-old Mahendra Prasad
Gupta are fortunate to enroll in
schools after the ones they previously attended to were blown
up by Maoist blasts six months
ago.
There are others, however,
who are not so fortunate. They
either could not recover from
the shock of seeing their schools
attacked or their parents just
developed cold feet in pursuing
education for their children any
longer after the experience.
“I am fortunate to have parents who are keen for my education after our school was
flattened in December, last year.
But many students have quit,”

Gupta, a student of class IX, said.
Class III student Ritu Kumar
misses the proximity of her former school at Pipra village in
Palamau’s Harihargang area to
her residence. “Now I read in a
school in Medininagar. But the

previous one was near my
house,” she rued.
In December, last year, the
Maoists had damaged five
schools in Palamau district alone
by exploding dynamites.
A human rights group esti-

mated that 14 schools had been
razed in November/December
in Jharkhand by the Left-wing
guerrillas who are targeting
schools because they had been
turned into camps for security
forces engaged in anti-Naxalite
operation.
“The situation is ironical. The
Maoists say they are fighting for
the poor and the downtrodden,
but by blowing up school buildings they are snatching away a
singularly important means of
bringing improvement in their
lives,'” Prof Ramesh Sharan of
Ranchi University said.
Deputy Inspector-General of
Police (Palamau Range) Prashant
Kumar Singh, said he had instructed secuitymen not to turn
school buildings into makeshift

camps.
Educationists in Jharkhand
have painted a bleak future for
primary education, specially in
rural areas where school buildings have been damaged,
Expressing concern over the
'alarming' drop out rate among
primary students and various
primary education projects
'going waste', Prof. Sharan said
construction of buildings in remote villages was very difficult.
“If primary education is not
imparted properly, it will be difficult for future generations to
land even a peon’s job,'” a faculty
member of the BIT, Meshra, Dr
Srikanta Pal, observed.
It was a well-known fact, Pal
said, that Maoists preyed on unemployed youth taking advantage of their condition, Pal said.

on moral grounds," RJD Deputy
Leader in the state assembly
Shakeel Ahmed Khan said.
The opposition members created noisy scenes and trooped
into the well in the state legislative council to press for the
demand
As the house sat for the day,
opposition MLCs, including
Gulam Gaus entered the well of
the house waving placards and
newspaper clippings on the CBI
probe ordered by the High
Court.

Farmer hurt
PTI
BANGALORE, JULY 19

A herd of wild elephants injured
a farmer after straying into a
farmshed in Kaniveshivapura village situated inside Mahadeshwara Reserve Forest in Anekal
wildlife range under Bannerghatta National Park limits
in the wee hours today.
Before injuring the farmer,
the elephants pulled down the
shed where he was sleeping,
police sources told PTI here.
The 21 year-old farmer has
been admitted to government
hospital and was "recovering",
they said.
Range Forest Officer Venugopal said it was the same herd
which trampled to death two
farmers near Tattekere-Chudahalli area in the same forest
range yesterday.

HE R A L D
GOA, TUESDAY, 20 JULY, 2010

Pg10
FROM PAGE 1
Joint operation...

Singapore-based company when we can remove the ship in same
time and lesser amount”.
“…may be there are some ulterior motives”, he stated adding
that he still stands by his threat to move the High Court if the contract is awarded to Titan.
The ship was grounded in July 2000 on a stormy night and since
the last ten years successive governments have made attempts to
remove the ill-fated ship but to no avail.

UK mom slams police...

information.
She slammed the police of not taking cognizance of Stephen’s
last conversation with his family back in UK that two men abducted
him to Wadkhal Naka. The tourist had told his family that he was
kidnapped from a Goan beach shack to Roha in a Maruti van and
feared the two kidnapers would kill him.
“There is conclusive proof that Stephen was in Wadkhal at the
time the police allege he jumped off the train at Roha and walked
though the jungle to Malsai village. The shopkeeper and owner of
the telephone booth indicated that Stephen arrived from the area
of the car park and Taxi rank…The police had previously traced
this call but denied later”, she said.
Interestingly, UK police traced the exact location and time of
the call made despite the alleged attempt by Maharashtra police
to get the telephone booth number changed.
The lady identified the two murderers as Dharmendra Naik and
Santosh D’Souza who gave conflicting statements. So also, Maureen
suspects a beach shack owner’s involvement in her son’s murder.
Interestingly, Naik was featured in the sensational death of British
teenager Scarlett Keeling Eden.
POLICE TAKE: Goa police shrugged off its role in the case, stating
it fell under the ambit of Maharashtra police. State police spokesperson Superintendent of (Special Branch) Police Atmaram Deshpande
in an email reply asked to contact the Maharashtra Police.
Suresh Jadhav, station head of Roha police station when approached
said the investigation concluded on right track, which is up on trial
before the Mangaon Court where a chargesheet was filed.
“We have examined 12 witnesses against the seven accused
who are released on bail at present. Stephen’s mother contacted
us some seven months back to know the case status and we
promptly replied to her communication…” Jadhav, who is reassigned
to Roha a year ago, replied to Herald in a telephonic interview.

Tourists robbed

the churches.
On their return, the two women and the driver were shocked to
find one car window broken and the valuables missing from the taxi.
The women then suspected the involvement of some persons
who were in a Gujarat-registered Tavera SUV, which was parked
behind their taxi in Old Goa.
They reported this to the Old Goa police and police immediately
flashed a wireless message to all police stations in the State to be
on the lookout for a red Tavera SUV with a Gujarat registration.
Incidentally, a Tavera vehicle matching the description was
sighted at the Mollem checkpost at about 4.30 pm.
Old Goa PI Francis Corte and a police team comprising Head Constable Dhure and Constables Sameer Phadte, Nitin Goankar and
Vinay Shrivastava, rushed to the
site and confronted the occupants, identified as Pankaj Rupsingh Rathod (28), Bunty Rajesh
Shinkrekar (27), Navinchandra
Subash Rathod (25), Yatin Babubai
Bongire (25) and Praful Pramat
(26), all from Ahmedabad Gujarat.
The five persons were taken to
the Old Goa police station, where
they initially denied their involvement in the crime. They claimed
that they had arrived in the State
on Sunday and had gone to visit
churches in Old Goa on Monday.
They later confessed to the crime
and police managed to recover the
stolen valuables from the accused.
The accused were later arrested
under Sections 379. 34 of IPC and
will be produced before the JMFC
at Panjim for remand on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has
acknowledged Pakistan Prime Minister
Yousuf Raza Gilani’s “personal role in efforts
to normalise relations with India” and hoped
these moves would bear fruit in the near
future.
Clinton made the remarks during a meeting with Gilani late last evening, said a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s office.
Gilani said Pakistan wants “good neighbourly relations with India” and would like
both sides to “address all issues and disputes
between them peacefully”.
The comments of the two leaders came
days after the Foreign Ministers of India
and Pakistan failed to make headway in
talks held in Islamabad on July 15.
The two Foreign Ministers have engaged
in a war of words since the talks ended in
deadlock.
During his interaction with Clinton, Gilani
said the discussions in different sectors as
part of the Pakistan-US Strategic Dialogue
had prepared the grounds for taking the
bilateral relationship beyond the war on
terror and American aid provided under
the Kerry-Lugar Act.

Gilani said that he was hopeful the fifth
round of the Strategic Dialogue, set to cochaired by Clinton and Foreign Minister S
M Qureshi will lead to greater US assistance
and cooperation for building water reservoirs, enhancing power generation capacity

and addressing the root causes of terrorism
like illiteracy, poverty and under-development.
The premier reiterated his invitation to
US President Barack Obama to visit Pakistan
in the near future, saying such a visit will
boost democratic forces in the country,
strengthen bilateral relations and create a
positive image of the US among the Pakistani
people.
Public diplomacy is vital for removing
misperceptions on both sides and building
higher trust between the two sides, he said.
Gilani also urged the US to enhance assistance for building the capacity of Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies and step
up intelligence-sharing for the campaign
to root out terrorism.
Referring to the situation in Afghanistan,
Gilani said his government attaches great
importance to its relations with the neighbouring country and “considers peace and
stability in Afghanistan contingent upon a
peaceful and secured Pakistan”.
Clinton said she saluted the Pakistan government’s resolve to fight terrorism and
that the US administration is “fully appreciative of the extraordinary sacrifices made
by Pakistan in its war”.

PTI
ISLAMABAD, JULY 19

US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton today said the world
community has reservations
about a Pakistan-China deal for
the supply of nuclear reactors
and wants Islamabad to respond
to these concerns.
Clinton made the remarks
while responding to a question
about concerns on the PakistanChina nuclear deal during a joint
news conference with Foreign
Minister Shah Mahmood
Qureshi at the Foreign Office
here.
She said the US is constantly
talking to Pakistan about its burgeoning energy needs.
She indicated that there were
a series of questions about the
nuclear arrangement with China
that need to be addressed by
Pakistan.
Qureshi said nuclear energy
is a component of Pakistan’s
programme to overcome a crippling energy crisis and that the

country would satisfy the international community’s concerns
on the deal with China.
Pakistan’s “policy on nonproliferation is very clear” and
the world community endorsed the country’s atomic
programme as “safe and responsible” during the recent
nuclear summit hosted by the
US, he contended.
“There should be no fear on
that account and these projects
that we intend to undertake will
be open to IAEA inspection,”
Qureshi said.
Pakistan has 35 years’ experience of generating nuclear energy and no untoward incident
has occurred because of precautions and systems that are in
place, he said.
Pakistan has inked a deal with
China for the supply of two new
reactors for its Chashma nuclear
power complex.
Experts have said the deal violates the guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Bombs kill 6
Afghan cops,
2 US troops
AP
KABUL, JULY 19

Geisha, Japanese traditional female professional entertainer serving at tatami banquet rooms, ride in a jinrikisha or rickshaw at Ginza in
central Tokyo, Japan, on Monday.

Israel has arrested five Palestinians accused of
being members of a Hamas cell responsible for
killing an Israeli policeman in the West Bank, the
Shin Bet security service said Monday.
It said the men, all in their 20s, confessed to
killing the policeman near the West Bank town
of Hebron on June 14 and handed over three
Kalashnikov rifles they used. The arrests were
carried out a week after the attack, which
wounded two other policemen, but were only
made public Monday in a statement released to
the media.
The names of the arrested men were not released, and it was not possible to confirm the
details with their families or lawyers. Hamas Web
sites mentioned the arrests but did not explicitly
link the group to the attack Monday.
The men were from the southern West Bank
village of Deir Samit, which is under full Israeli
security control, according to Palestinian security
officials. The officials said the Israelis arrested
around 20 men and they did not know which of
them had confessed to shooting the police officer.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because
the Palestinian Authority had not officially commented.
Violence has diminished in the West Bank in
recent years, thanks in part to increased security
cooperation between Israelis and forces loyal to
the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which
has limited power in the territory under Israel’s

overall security control. The Palestinian Authority,
controlled by the secular Fatah movement, has
launched its own crackdown against Hamas, driving the Islamic group underground in the West
Bank.
Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, and has cracked
down on Fatah members there. On Monday, Gaza’s
Hamas rulers banned top Fatah officials from
leaving the territory for a meeting in the West
Bank, according to Amal Hamad, a Fatah member
from Gaza.
Also Monday, Israeli forces demolished a cluster
of tents and shacks belonging to Palestinians in the
northern West Bank, according to the Israeli military
and footage from AP Television News. Israeli house
demolitions have angered Palestinians, who say they
are forced to build without permits because of discriminatory planning rules, and have drawn criticism
from the international community.
One of the Palestinians, Ziad Adnan Saeh, said
Israeli soldiers arrived early Monday and ordered
him and others away before knocking the structures down. “They didn’t leave anything of our
belongings. They were threatening to shoot us if
we come close, so all of us left and now look
what happened,” he said.
The Israeli military’s Civil Administration said
the military knocked down nine temporary agricultural structures because they were put up
without permits in an army firing zone, endangering the Palestinians working there. The Palestinians were given three weeks to contest the
demolition orders in court but did not do so, the
Civil Administration said in a statement.

Heaping praises on Mahatma
Gandhi, whom he described as
a “transformational” leader, Israel’s Nobel Laureate President
Shimon Peres has said that many
in Israel view him as a Prophet,
even as he described India as a
“role model of tolerance”.
“It is laudable the way India
has managed its unity in diversity.
There is a lot for everybody to
learn in co-existence from one of
the most ancient cultures of the

world. Well, Wisdom never ages”,
Peres told a group of visiting parliamentarians from India, led by
Congress MP Naveen Jindal.
Peres also touched upon his
reverence for the Father of India
and said his teachings of non-violent coexistence were for everybody to admire and practice.
“Mahatma Gandhi who
led India’s national movement,
is not only an inspirational
leader for me but a transformational one who brought in revolutionary ideas of non-violent

coexistence.
“Many in Israel see him as a
Prophet. The teachings in tolerance are a model for everybody to admire and practice,”
the elder Statesman said while
expressing his fondness for Indian society and culture.
He also expressed satisfaction
at with the way bilateral relations with India have shaped
since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992, stressing
at the common menace of terror
faced by both the countries.

US may send
envoy to
North Korea
AFP
SEOUL, JULY 19

A South Korean newspaper said
Monday that US President
Barack Obama may send an
envoy to North Korea to break
the impasse in relations.
Obama is considering allowing New Mexico Governor Bill
Richardson — a veteran troubleshooter with the North —
to accept an invitation to visit
Pyongyang, according to the
JoongAng Ilbo and its Englishlanguage sister paper JoongAng
Daily.
The JoongAng Daily, quoting
“multiple diplomatic sources”
in Seoul, said Han Song-Ryol,
deputy North Korean ambassador to the United Nations, invited Richardson in May to
discuss issues including the sinking of a South Korean warship.
South Korea’s foreign ministry
declined comment. But
spokesman Kim Young-Sun called
for caution over any such visit
while countermeasures are being
discussed for the sinking. “We understand the US government
shares the same position,” he said.
Tensions have risen since
South Korea and the United
States, citing the findings of a
multinational investigation, accused the North of torpedoing
a South Korean warship, the
Cheonan, near the tense sea
border in March.
The North denies involvement
and says a UNSC statement on
July 9 — which condemned the
attack without specifying the culprit — vindicated it.
After the UN statement it reiterated conditional willingness
to return to stalled six-party nuclear disarmament talks.
“I’m aware that the North Korean side told Richardson it is
willing to consider expressing
regrets or making an ameliorating statement about the Cheonan incident if he visits
Pyongyang,” the JoongAng Daily
quoted one source as saying.

Six Afghan policemen and two US
troops were killed Monday by
roadside bombs in southern
Afghanistan where the Taliban are
pushing back against Afghan and
international forces efforts to
move into the insurgents’ stronghold.
Abdul Qayum Khan, the chief
of Khakrez district in northern
Kandahar province, said the police were killed and four others
were wounded while traveling
south by vehicle to Kandahar.
NATO said two U.S. service
members died in separate blasts
in the south, but provided no
other details.
The US death toll has mounted
in recent weeks as American
troops try to extend their reach
in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, while insurgents have mounted a summer
counteroffensive aimed at both
international troops and the
Afghan government.
June was the deadliest month
for U.S. and international forces
with the deaths of 103 service
members, including 60 Americans.
Including Monday’s deaths, 57
NATO troops have been killed so
far this month in Afghanistan, 42
of them American.
The capital city of Kabul has
also seen attacks ahead of an
international conference on
Tuesday, at which the Afghan
government hopes to show
world leaders it is making
progress toward running its own
affairs.
Thousands of Afghan soldiers
and police have been deployed
to secure the capital during the

one-day meeting. Officials worry
Tuesday’s conference will draw
a repeat of the violence seen at
a national peace gathering in
May, when two militants were
killed in a gunbattle with security forces and a rocket landed
with a thud about 100 yards
(meters) from the meeting site.

Mubarak terminally
ill, says report
CAIRO, JULY 19

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is terminally ill, according to
US and other Western intelligence agencies, The Washington
Times reported on Monday.
Most Western intelligence agencies were said to have estimated
that the Egyptian president is dying from terminal cancer in his
stomach and pancreas. Earlier this month, Mubarak was reportedly
treated in a hospital in France, and in March his gallbladder was
operated on in Germany.

OHERALDO

Biz12:Pg12 7/19/2010 10:49 PM Page 1

Pg12

BIZ

GOA, TUESDAY, 20 JULY, 2010

SEBI panel for sweeping changes in takeover norms
PTI
MUMBAI, JULY 19

An entity buying 25 per cent
stake in a company will need to
make an open offer to the rest
of the shareholders, as per the
sweeping changes proposed by
a SEBI panel in the takeover
guidelines.
Under the existing norms,

the trigger point for making an
open offer to shareholders was
acquisition of 15 per cent equity in the target company
through market operations or
through a negotiated deal.
If the report of the SEBI
takeover panel is accepted by
SEBI, the open offer would be
available to all shareholders.

TALK BUSINESS

LIC’s distribution
network in Goa
PANJIM (HBD) -- Life Insurance Corporation of India serves Goa
with a network of 11 branches located two each in Panjim and
Margao and one each in Vasco, Mapusa, Bicholim, Curchorem,
Ponda, Pernem and Canacona.
LIC is also having 3 satellite offices operating at Cuncolim in
South Goa and Calagute in North Goa. Another satellite office in
Sanquelim will be operational from Sept’ 2010. Recently LIC has
opened a customer zone in Panjim opposite the Don Bosco High
School and it is open from 8 am to 8 pm on working days and 8
am to 6 pm on Saturday.
As at March 31, 2010, a total of 9,26,427 policies are being
serviced by Goa division. During the financial year 2009-2010,
1,08,564 new policies were sold with first premium income of Rs
238 crore. During this year Goa division had produced 42 MDRT
agents. During the year 2009-10, Goa division has settled over
72,703 claims amounting to Rs 171.01 crore by way of Maturity
and Survival benefits payments and 2520 claims amounting to Rs
23.10 crore as Death claims.

The new norm of making an
open offer for 100 per cent
stake would give all shareholders an opportunity to exit the
company and get fair price for
their equity stake.
At present, the open for is
for 20 per cent of the share
capital.
"An open offer ought to be
for all shares of the target company to ensure equality of opportunity and fair treatment of
all shareholders, big and
small," C Achuthan, Chairman
of SEBI's Takeover Panel, said.
The panel also recommended that the offer price
would be based on the volume
weighted average of 12 weeks
market price of the target company, against 26 weeks now.
The panel recommended
that for frequently traded
shares, 60 day trading volume

weighted average market price
would be taken into account
for calculating the minimum
offer price.
"As the markets are moving
very fast, taking into account
the 26 week average price
might not give the right picture. Although it increases the
risk of price manipulation in a
deal, but taking into account
the movement for such a long
time would be theoretical,"
SMC Capitals Equity Head Jagannadham Thunuguntla said.
Commenting on the move to
raise the open offer trigger to
25 per cent, Diljeet Titus, senior partner of law firm Titus
and Co, said, "It is desirable as
the new prompter will be required to make open offer
when he is close to acquiring
substantial stake in the company. One needs at least 26 per

BSNL offer on
broadband
customers
PTI
CHENNAI, JULY 19

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd
(BSNL) has unveiled a scheme
for customers registering for
new Broadband connection.
"New customers registering
for Broadband connection
under any plan upto 2MBPS
speed would be provided of
unlimited free download at
2MBPS for first 15 days,” BSNL
said in a statement here.
BSNL said the installation
charges had been waived and
special relief scheme 'Samadhan' for settlement of disputed
bills for existing Broadband
customers had also been extended till March 31, 2011.

Idea hits 1 cr subscribers in
Maharashtra, Goa
PANJIM (HBD) -- Idea Cellular has crossed the 1 crore subscriber
mark in Maharashtra and Goa circle, recently.
Idea Cellular, an Aditya Birla Group company, was the first to
launch mobile services in Maharashtra and Goa in 1996, and is
today, the highest penetrated mobile network in the circle, reaching out to over 82 per cent of the population.
With its recent feat of winning the 3G spectrum for Maharashtra & Goa, the company is now gearing up to offer the next level
of mobile experience to its over 1 crore subscribers in the circle.
With over 380 exclusive showrooms, and more than 80,000
multi-branded outlets selling Idea’s products and services, the
company’s reach remains unmatched in the circle. A robust network comprising of 6,894 cell sites enables non stop connectivity
across Maharashtra & Goa.
In the next phase of growth, the company plans to offer high
end data services through an enriched VAS portfolio for urban
consumers, and basic mobility services and Marathi VAS content
for the rural audience.

LAUNCH PAD

Foodles from Horlicks

PANJIM (HBD) – GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare has
launched– ‘Foodles’ from Horlicks, a snacking option, which is
also nourishing.
The instant noodles feature a Healthmaker, which is fortified
with 9 vital nutrients and is packed with iron and calcium. Foodles
from Horlicks is available in two options- Regular and Four-Grain.
The Four-Grain variant is made with the nutritious grains -rice,
corn, ragi and wheat. The two packs are priced at Rs 10 and Rs
15 for 80gm respectively.
Each variant is available in three flavors. The regular pack comes
in flavors like Must Masala, Crazy Curry and Spicy Treat whereas
the four grain pack is available in Ala Masala, Curry in a Hurry and
Slice of Spice.

Sensex loses 27 points
PTI
MUMBAI, JULY 19

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today closed
27 points lower following a choppy session amid weak global
cues, but a major fall was averted by strong buying in R-Com and
banking stocks.
Tracking weak Asian sentiment and a weekend decline on Wall
Street, the barometer opened on a negative note and fell about
100 points to hit a low of 17,856.
The market, however, was able to recover most of the lost
ground on the back of reports that a SEBI panel has suggested sweeping changes in the Takeover Code, following
which the barometer touched a high of 18,005 level at midsession.

cent equity to have a say in
passing of special resolution."
Experts said the recommendation if put in place would
make acquisitions expensive in
widely held companies as it
has to make offer for all the
shareholders.
"The minority shareholders
will get an opportunity to exit,
but acquisition costs can go up
by three-fold and acquirers
would have to reconsider their
financing arrangements," BMR
Advisors Partner Rohit Berry
said.
SEBI Chairman C B Bhave
said the panel was set up in
September 2009 with the aim
to provide guidelines that will
shape acquisitions in India for
the next 5-10 years.
"The merger and acquisition
deals would be affected as cost
of acquisition would go up.

However, hostile takeovers
could increase as the acquirer
can now bid up to 100 per
cent, which was 75 per cent
earlier, thereby taking full control of the target firm,"
Thunuguntla said.
The panel also recommended that the formalities
for competition of an open
offer be reduced to 57 days
from the current 95 days.
The panel said in case the
acquirer's holding exceeds 90
per cent in the target company,
delisting should be triggered
automatically.
With this, acquirers can use
open offer as a tool to delist
the target company. Further,
the panel has mandated that
the acquirer at the time of
coming out with the acquisition announcement will have
to state his intention about the

RIL eyes stake
in Quicksilver
REUTERS
MUMBAI, JULY 19

Energy major Reliance Industries is in talks with Texasbased Quicksilver Resources ,
including for a possible buyout
of the US firm that develops
shale gas and coal-bed
methane, the Daily News &
Analysis reported on Monday.
The talks also include buying
a part stake or partnering
Quicksilver for one of its major
projects called the Horn River
Basin assets in British Columbia, the newspaper said, citing
unidentified sources familiar
with the development.
Quicksilver, which is estimated to have sales of $900

StanChart launches
online remittance facility
PTI
MUMBAI, JULY 19

Standard Chartered Bank today
announced the launch of its
online remittance service
Transfer2Home, as a part of its
NRI services offering.
The service will enable customers to transfer money to
India from the USA, UK, UAE,
Singapore, Hong Kong and
Bahrain, a press release issued
here stated.
Standard Chartered has tiedup with TimesofMoney in
order to service customers in
the United Kingdom, United
Arab Emirates, Singapore,
Hong Kong and Bahrain.
TimesofMoney is a leading
payments service-provider,
which serves various financial
institutions offering them
money transfer service.
Its private label remittance
service caters to the global
cross-border money transfer

industry. Its industry standard platform provides transaction processing which is
fully compliant with payment
norms suiting regulatory
framework in several countries worldwide.
The bank has also entered

into a strategic arrangement
with BNY Mellon for providing
Automated Clearing House
(ACH) based remittance service
from the United States, the release said.
BNY Mellon is the global
leader in asset management
and securities servicing. BNY
Mellon’s Treasury Services
group delivers high-quality
performance in global pay-

delisting.
The 12-member panel included Tata Steel Group Chief
Financial Officer Koushik Chatterjee and Larsen & Toubro
CFO Y M Deosthalee.
Further, the panel has made
it mandatory for independent
directors of the target company to give their views on the
offer price so that the interest
of the minority shareholders is
protected.
"Increase of trigger level to
25 per cent from 15 per cent is
a significant step, as it signals
an alignment with International standards," FICCI Corporate
Laws
Committee
Chairman Sidharth Birla said.
It has also recommended
that the market regulator
could grant exemptions to a
firm from coming out with an
open offer in case of corporate

ments, trade services, cash
management, capital markets, foreign exchange and
derivatives, helping clients
make payments, optimise
cash flow, and manage liquidity more efficiently around
the world in more than 100
currencies.
Commenting
on
the
launch, Standard Chartered's
Country Head Consumer
Banking, India, Shyam Srinivasan, said, "India is the top
remittance receiver in the
world
and
remittance
through the online channel is
growing at an incredible
pace. Hence, it is imperative
that we establish our presence in this sphere."
"Transfer2Home will be a key
enabler for our NRI banking
business and is a big step forward in further strengthening
our NRI banking proposition,"
he said.

million this year, currently has
two large shale basins with
proven reserves of around 2.4
trillion cubic feet.
A Reliance spokesman told
the paper he would not comment on market speculation.

debt restructuring (CDR), rights
issue among others.
Further, the acquirer could
raise the offer price three days
prior to the beginning of the
open offer.
SEBI has sought public comments on the panel report by
August 31.

MF FUNDA
TAURUS MUTUAL FUND has approved July 21, 2010 as the record
date for declaration of dividend under dividend plan of Taurus
Short Term Income Fund.
The quantum of dividend will be Rs 12 per unit as on the record
date.
TATA MUTUAL FUND has approved July 23, 2010 as record date
for declaration of dividend under dividend option of Tata Dividend Yield Fund. The face value of per unit is Rs 10.
The quantum of dividend will be Rs 2 per unit, subject to availability and adequacy of distributable surplus on the record date.
EDELWEISS MUTUAL FUND has announced changes in the exit
load structure of Edelweiss Diversified Growth Equity Top 100
(EDGE Top 100) Fund, Edelweiss Nifty Enhancer Fund and Edelweiss Absolute Return Equity Fund.
Accordingly, under normal circumstances as well as under expiry day trigger facility, the exit load charge will be 1% if the units
are redeemed / switched-out on or before 180 days from the date
of allotment. If the units are redeemed / switched-out after 180
days but on or before 365 days from the date of allotment the
exit load charge will be 0.50%. If the units are redeemed /
switched-out after 365 days from the date of allotment the exit
load charge will be nil.
Change in Minimum Application Amount:
The minimum application amount under Plan B & C of Edelweiss Diversified Growth Equity Top 100 (E.D.G.E Top 100) Fund
and Edelweiss Nifty Enhancer Fund has been altered.
Accordingly, for Plan B the minimum application amount will
be Rs 1 lakh and in multiples of Re 1 thereafter.
Minimum application amount for Plan C will be Rs 1 million and
in multiples of Re 1 thereafter. The above changes will be effective
from July 21, 2010.

Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee today said he will
not be swayed by the IMF's
higher growth projection of 9.5
per cent but will stick to his
conservative outlook of about
8.5 per cent plus economic expansion for the current fiscal.
"Always, we have dispute
with the IMF. I was inclined to
accept the IMF assessment for
India's growth for the year
when they projected it 9.4-9.5
per cent. But I am being conservative in my assessment...I
will be happy with 8.5 per cent
plus growth," Mukherjee told a
conference on financial inclusion hosted by industry body
CII here.
Earlier this month, the Inter-

national Monetary Fund (IMF)
had hiked the country's growth
forecast for 2010 to 9.5per
cent from its April projection of
8.8 per cent.
He further said the Eurozone
crisis is not going to affect us if
it gets confined to Greece and
a couple of other countries,
adding that our economy has
shown considerable resilience.
"Eurozone crisis, if confined
to Greece and a couple of other
countries, is not going to affect
us. But if it assumes larger
proportion and dimension, if
it engulfs Europe as a whole,
I don't know what may happen. Therefore, in that context I do feel that our economy
has shown its resilience,"
Mukherjee said.
The lingering debt turmoil in

many European nations, including Greece and Portugal, is
even threatening to derail the
fragile global economic recovery, which is led by Asian
countries such as India and
China.
Mukherjee said globally he
has heard appreciation for the
country's banking structure
and that is why he did not
agree that there should be
some sort of taxes on the
banks to discipline them.
"Everywhere I heard the
most appropriate and practical
appreciation for our banking
structure..it was possible for
me to tell the last G-20 meeting, which was repeated by the
Prime Minister in the summit at
Toronto, that I do not agree
with you that there should be

some sort of taxes on the
banks to bring them to discipline," he said.
New Delhi's stand against
any bank tax for funding future
bailouts was vindicated when
G-20 leaders last month agreed
that any such levy should be
left to individual nations.
Highlighting the importance
of financial inclusion, he said,
"it is my firm belief that inclusive economic growth is crucial
for achieving sustainable economic development. Therefore,
financial inclusion is an important goal for the government."
He further said it should be
recognised that if growth is to
be sustained in the medium- to
long-term, it has to necessarily
involve the common man as
important stakeholders.

Retail banks
making less
on customers
REUTERS
MUMBAI, JULY 19

Retail banks are making less
profit on average from customers since the financial crisis
as price-sensitive consumers
shop around and become more
demanding, according to a report released on Monday.
The study by consultancy Accenture found that nearly half
of top global retail banks had
seen the average profit from
customers fall between 5 and
15 percent. A further 11 percent said they had seen bigger
declines.
Of the 46 executives interviewed for the study, more
than half said customer loyalty
had decreased. Most expected
the lack of customer loyalty to
continue in the long term.

June exports shoot up
30% to $17.8 billion
PTI
NEW DELHI, JULY 19

Exports remained robust with a
30.4 per cent annual growth in
June at USD 17.75 billion, but
were short of the impressive
May performance, amidst apprehensions of the European
debt trouble casting shadow on
global trade.
In June 2009, exports had
shrunk by about 28 per cent
under the impact of the global
financial meltdown.
"There is a problem in Europe...mood is not good out
there in Europe," commerce
secretary Rahul Khullar told
newsmen here while releasing
the June trade figures.
Though on a low base for
comparison, in May exports
had posted an impressive 35.1
per cent growth at USD 16.1
billion.
Imports for the month in-

creased 23 per cent to USD
28.3 billion, Khullar said,
widening the country's trade
deficit to USD 10.55 billion.
In the first quarter ended
June, exports stood at USD
50.8 billion showing a growth
of 32.2 per cent over the yearago period. Against this imports grew by 34 per cent to
USD83 billion, leaving the
country with a trade deficit of
USD 32.2 billion.
The sectors which registered
healthy growth in June include
engineering (90 per cent), petroleum and oil products (66
per cent), gems and jewellery
(24 per cent) and chemicals (41
per cent). However, exports of
readymade garments contracted by 14 per cent in the
month.
Federation of Indian Export
Organisations (FIEO) President
A Sakthivel said the focus given

by the commerce ministry both
for diversification of products
as well as market has started
yielding results.
To further boost exports,
Sakthivel called for a special export credit rate under the new
base rate regime, which came
into effect from July 1.
The global economy slipped
into major crisis from September-October 2008, impacting
the country's exports particularly to the developed markets.
While the exports have recovered following turnaround
in the global economy, they are
still below the 2007-08 levels
and the first half of 2008-09 fiscal.
The world's second fastest
growing economy is aiming
about 15 per cent export
growth this fiscal, following a
drop of 4.7 per cent in 200910.

264 special
counters for
I-T returns
PTI
NEW DELHI, JULY 19

The I-T department today said it
will open 264 special counters
from July 21-31 in the Capital and
national capital territory region,
to accept returns from individual
taxpayers.
"The income tax department
would set up 264 special counters to receive income tax returns at Mayur Bhawan and
Pragati Maidan for the benefit
of taxpayers," Income Tax Delhi
Circle-I chief commissioner
Meenakshi Singh said.
The Mayur Bhawan counters
will be operational from July 2123 and from July 26-27, while the
Pragati Maidan counters will be
open from July 28-31.
She further the department
expects to receive over 5 lakh returns in these two camps compared to 4.5 lakh last year. The
last day for filing returns is July
31.

Nalco eyes Afghan mining sector
PTI
NEW DELHI, JULY 19

State-owned aluminium maker
Nalco may show interest in developing mines in Afghanistan,
which is expected to invite
global bids soon for exploration of mineral deposits estimated to be worth USD one
trillion. "Everybody should be
keen on Afghanistan.
We are right now waiting
and watching the situation
there. Once the tender is
floated.
Things would become transparent and clear," a senior
Nalco official said. Nalco has
joined industry peers like
Vedanta Resources, Essar, Hindustan Copper which are eye-

ing
mining
assets
in
Afghanistan which is likely to
seek global interest in the near
future. ‘Afghanistan's mining resources are yet to be explored.
We are diversifying into
other metals like copper, uranium, zinc," he said. Another
PSU Hindustan Copper has also
expressed interest in bidding
for mines in the war-ravaged
country.
Last month, Afghanistan
Mines Minister Wahidullah
Shahrani visited here and invited Indian companies, along
with global majors like Rio
Tinto and BHP Billiton, to develop the country''s resources.
In its efforts to secure mining
resources overseas, the alu-

minium PSU Nalco has already
identified mineral assets in
Chile, Namibia and Indonesia.
The Navratna company,
listed and traded on the stock
exchanges, is in the process of
floating separate ventures in
the foreign countries to buy
out the reserves. In Chile, the
company has identified a bauxite mine; in Namibia, a copper
mine and in Indonesia, a coal
block.
For copper resources, Nalco
would bid jointly with Hindustan Copper. For uranium assets
overseas, the company may
join hands with the Nuclear
Power Corporation of India Ltd,
with whom it already has a
joint venture to set up nuclear

power plants.
Nalco is in process of selecting advisers for such acquisitions. The adviser, likely to be
selected by August, would be
expected to help in scouting
mineral reserves overseas for
Nalco as well as completing
such deals.
Nalco has cash reserves of Rs
4,400 crore to part fund its foreign ambitions. Besides, Nalco
is scouting for resources in
Mongolia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan,
Senegal, Surinam, Zambia and
Congo.
At present, the aluminium
maker produces 1.6 million
tonnes alumina from its refineries in Orissa. It produced 3.6
lakh tonne aluminium last year.

Gujarat for
shipbuilding
yards
PTI
AHMEDABAD, JULY 19

State government today said it
has approved three projects to
the tune of Rs 1,070 crore for
development of shipbuilding
yards off Gujarat coast line.
"Three projects of Rs 1,070
crore for development of shipbuilding yards have been approved by the Board, which
include yards along the north
bank of Narmada near Dahej,
and old-port of Bhavnagar," Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB)
spokesperson said.
"Small to medium size vessels are proposed to be constructed by these private
players at the approved sites,"
he said.
The
three
companies
granted approval for developing shipbuilding yards are Modest Infrastructure at Nava
Ratanpara in Bhavnagar, Dolphin Offshore at Jafrabad in
Saurasthra and Bombay Marine
at Koliyad near Dahej.
"The project in Bhavnagar by
Modest is worth Rs 500 crore
for which environment and
coastal regulatory zone clearances have been received from
GoI). Land is in possession of
the shipbuilder and project implementation shall begin soon,"
GMB spokesperson said.
"Land acquisition is in
progress for the yards proposed at Jafrabad and Koliyad
to be developed by Dolphin
Offshore and Bombay Marine
with an estimated cost Rs 450
crore and Rs 120 crore respectively," he said.
The state govt has proposed
to set up five marine shipbuilding parks (SMPs), of which projects for three SMPs along the
coastlines of Bhavanagar and
Dahej are being accorded priority by the board.

After taking the nation by
storm last year, the cute
‘Zoozoos’ in Vodafone’s ad are
slowly losing out on their novelty factor leading to the introduction of an animated parrot
in the telecom giant’s latest
commercials.
"When the Zoozoos were introduced, they were something
out of the world. But it is not
going to be the same now. It
has become familiar to everyone, so it’s not going to surprise us each time," Rajiv Rao,
national creative director of
Ogilvy and Mather (O & M), the
ad agency handling the campaign, said.
The simple, innocent and
funny acts of the alien-like
white, egg-headed creatures

with balloon bodies created a
phenomenon in the Indian advertising industry.
Besides securing a number
of awards, the adorable
‘Zoozoos’ quickly went on to
become a darling of both the
consumers and the advertising
fraternity.
With more than six lakh fans
on social networking site Facebook and lakhs of views on
YouTube, their popularity, however, has failed to take a dip
ever since they invaded television screens during the 2009
IPL matches.
But in the latest series of advertisements promoting its offering of a bonus card of Rs 4,
Vodafone chose to create an
animated parrot with actor
Boman Irani’s voice-over. "We
don’t want to overdo the

Zoozoos. We love them but at
the same time, we didn’t want
to get repetitive with them,"
the adman known as the father
of the ‘Zoozoos’ said.
The ‘Zoozoos’, whose main
motto was to showcase the various value added services (VAS)
that the company provides,
were not deemed fit to deliver
the new advertising message of
the brand.
"For each message, we look
at it very differently. And in this
one, the Zoozoos didn’t fit in.
The product is clearly on tariff,
and that’s why we chose a different route," Rao said.
Vodafone Essar India’s vice
president (marketing), Anuradha Aggarwal, indicated that
the ‘Zoozoos’ were rested lest
a fatigue factor might work
against them.

"Using Zoozoos was not appropriate at this point. They
are special and if we use them
unnecessarily all the time then
we are not going to do justice
to them and on the message
that we need to deliver. Therefore, we will keep doing different things," she said.
For Zoozoo fans, the good
news is that the company seems
to be in no mood to phase out
the superstar characters now.
"The Zoozoos will not be
phased out. The consumers
have a lot of love for them.
They will not go anywhere, we
will keep them alive," Aggarwal
said when asked whether the
company would bid farewell to
them.
Adman Rao said they want to
make sure that the next time
viewers see ‘Zoozoos’, it

AGENCY
CHENNAI, JULY 19

The Insurance Regulatory and
Development Authority (IRDA)
seems to be trying to micromanage the sector with its proposed measures on hiking the
policy persistency (policy continuity/renewal) ratio, say life
insurance industry experts.
In an exposure draft on persistency of life insurance policies, the IRDA has suggested a
target of 20 policies per year
for individual agents and a minimum first year premium income of Rs.150,000.
IRDA has also proposed nonrenewal of an agent's licence
where the persistency ratio is
less than 50 percent. Further,
there shall be a disincentive for
a lapse, in the form of commission clawback by the insurer on
a proportionate basis.
Alternatively, a part of the
first year commission shall be
withheld and be paid based on
persistency in later years, the
draft suggests.
The regulator has called for
comments from the Life Insurance Council, General Insurance
Council,
consumer
organisations and the general
public by July 31, 2010, while
excluding the nearly three million agents.
'ULIPs accounting for nearly
85 percent of the industry's
sales are sold by companies/
agents as a short-term investment product that can be encashed after the lock-in period.
The blame for this and other
ills of plaguing the sector entirely rests with the IRDA,' R Ramakrishnan, a member of the
Malhotra Committee on insurance reforms said.
'Even in the US and UK, only
10 percent of the life insurance

policies are held to maturity.
IRDA should not make the
agents a scapegoat for its and
life insurers' failures,' he added.
Ramakrishnan and other industry experts said if the IRDA
wants to focus on policy persistency than it should fix the
minimum persistency ratio for
the life insurers and not for the
agents.
Saying that data collected by
IRDA should be interpreted properly, Ramakrishnan said the LIC's
high persistency in Ulip is mainly
due the fact that it sells single
premium policies with two percent commission, whereas the
private sector products are annual premium and the agency
commission is 20%.
Officials of private life insurers said that procuring 20 policies by an agent is a tall task as
the average productivity of an
agent is 0.3 policies per month
and an active agent may get
one policy per month.
By prescribing productivity
targets, IRDA is trying to
'micro-manage' the sector, is
the unanimous views of a
cross-section of industry officials that IANS spoke to. Agent
targets are the prerogative of
insurers, they said.
They said a large chunk of individual agency force will go out
of the system and companies
have to incur additional expenditure in recruiting new agents-around Rs 5,000 per agent.
IRDA data show that as on
March 31, 2010, the total number of life insurance agents
stood at around 2.9 million
(private sector 1.58 million, LIC
1.4 million). Between Jan 2010
and March 2010, around
200,000 agents were added
and around 240,000 agents
deleted.

The number shows the indiscriminate manner the companies have been hiring agents
and IRDA licensing them.
'As per IRDA's figure, there is
one life insurance agent for
every 333 Indians. However, if
one takes out the below the
poverty line population then
the ratio of agents to population is very high. But weeding
out the non-performers is the
duty of the insurers,' Ramakrishnan said.
'It is time IRDA Chairman
grill company CEOs and CFOs
on the issues like expense overrun, low persistency, high
agency and sales force churn
and other core issues. If that
happens things will fall in line,'
a senior official of a Mumbaibased private life insurer told
IANS, preferring anonymity.
Welcoming the IRDA's move
on clawing back of the commissions paid on lapsed policies,
an industry official said: 'The
clawing back should be applicable to all intermediaries and
not restricted to individual
agents.'
Interestingly, the 61-month
persistency ratio of individual
agency channel for private life
insurers for the three-year period 2004-05 to 2006-07 is
around 50 percent, much
higher than that of corporate
agents (just below 45 percent),
brokers (less than 40 percent).
The persistency of bancassurance channel (policies sold by
banks) is above 50 percent.
'Any measure to improve the
persistency is welcome. However, it should not be a kneejerk reaction. Perhaps a
calibrated approach is what is
wanted,' Secretary General of
Life Insurance Council S B
Mathur said.

SSWL plant in
Jamshedpur
PTI
JAMSHEDPUR, JULY 19

Wheel rim major 'Steel Strips
Wheels Limited' (SSWL) has set
up a manufacturing plant in the
steel city for supplying the
parts to leading auto majors.
The plant, the third one by
the group after Chennai and
Chandigarh, was today inaugurated by Tata Steel managing
director, Hemant M Nerurkar at
Govindpur locality in Jamshedpur, near the Tata Motors plant.
Set up at a cost of Rs 140
crore over nine acres of land
near Tata Motors, the plant will
have an initial production capacity of one million wheel
rims which will be upgraded to
two million in mid-2011, SSWL
group MD Group Dheeraj Garg
said.
Garg said though the main
customer of the plant will be
Tata Motors, the wheel rims
produced here would also be
supplied to another leading automobile company Ashok Leyland and the export markets in
Japan and Europe.
Expressing confidence that
the company will become the
number one automobile wheel
manufacturer in the country
with this expansion, he said
SSWL was expecting to double
the capacity by next year.
Also the cost of wheels produced by the company will
comparatively cheaper, he told
reporters.
While the total capacity of
the company in India was
presently 11 million, that will
be enhanced to 15 million by
March next year, he said adding
that the expansion of Chennai
unit, which presently has 2.5
million capacity, was going on.
The production at Chennai

Zoozoos rest, parrot does trick for Vodafone!
PTI
MUMBAI, JULY 19

IRDA is micro managing
life insurers: Experts

should, once again, be surprising, refreshing and clutterbreaking in the crowded media
space.
"The challenge is to keep refreshing the brand, keep surprising the viewers, and not
being repetitive," he added.
The company, however, is tightlipped on when will the old
Zoozoos be back on television
screens to entertain people.
To bring a fresh look to the
brand and to communicate
with changed target audiences,
many brands have earlier killed
their popular mascots.
Inextricably linked with
Hutch, the endearing pug gradually disappeared from its advertisements as part of a
re-branding exercise after
Hutchison Essar was acquired
by Vodafone in 2007.

will be doubled following the
completion of the ongoing expansion, which was expected
to be over by the end of this fiscal, Garg said adding that the
company has invested Rs. 45
crore for the expansion of the
unit.
The production of the
Chandigarh unit of the company was recently raised to 9
million from the existing 8 million, he said.
Referring to the company’s
turnover during 2010-11, Garg
said we are targetting to
achieve a turnover of Rs 850
crore this fiscal against Rs 450
crore last year.
The company also set up the
export target to Rs 120 to 125
crore this financial year, as
compared to Rs 60-70 crore
registered last year, he said.
The company have been
procuring steel from Tata
Steel as well as imported
from MNCs like Arcellor Mittal and Posco.
Stating that SSWL produced
wheel rims for all types of automobiles including heavy vehicles, he claimed that the rims
produced by the company were
low weight and

Actress Sonal Chauhan displaying ornaments during the inauguration of a jewllery showroom in New Delhi on Sunday.

General Motor's mini-vehicle
venture in southern China
unveiled its first car brand
on Sunday as it aims at the
fast-growing
moderately
priced segment of the car
market.
SAIC-GM-Wuling plans to roll
out a series of passenger cars
under nameplate of Bao Jun or
treasured horse in the near future, said its general manager,
Shen Yang.
"Bao Jun is just the beginning. We will launch one
new model per year carrying
the same nameplate in the
next few years. We will also
develop SUVs and MPVs,"
Shen told reporters in
Shanghai.
GM-SAIC-Wuling is a threeway venture between GM, SAIC
Motor Corp and Liuzhou Wuling Automobile, whose workhorses are Wuling brand
minivans and pick-up trucks.
Before Bao Jun, the Chevrolet
Spark was the only car made at
the venture.
Shen did not disclose the

price of Bao Jun, which is
scheduled to hit the market
before the end of this year.
Kevin Wale, president and
managing director for GM's
China
operations,
told
Reuters that Bao Jun will compete with local brands.
SAIC president Chen Hong
also considers Bao Jun complementary to its own, muchpricier
portfolio,
which
includes the MG 6, Roewe 550
among others.
The top Chinese automaker has virtually the
only domestic brands that
have made some inroad into
the country's lucrative
medium-to-higher end segment, which is dominated
by foreign brands.
Wuling could now be a platform for SAIC to compete with
cheap, local brands made by
Geely Automobile Holdings
and Chery Automobile, Chen
said previously.
Affordable and reliable Wuling cars, jointly developed by
GM, SAIC and the venture,
would also give the Chinese automaker a chance to compete

effectively in emerging markets.
"We will start selling MG 6
next year in the UK, but at the
same time we will not give up
any growth opportunity in developing markets such as
southeast Asia," Chen told reporters.
Shen, however, did not provide a sales target for its passenger business. Bao Jun will
be made at its plant in the
southern city of Liuzhou, he
added.
GM, which now holds 34
percent of SAIC-GM-Wuling,
has been seeking to raise its
stake in venture. It intends
to buy the stake from Liuzhou Wuling, a subsidiary
of SAIC, which holds 15.9
percent of the tie-up. SAIC's
50.1 percent will remain unchanged, Chinese executives
had said.
Wale said negotiations with
its partners are on-going but
declined to elaborate.
GM also runs a car venture
with SAIC and a light commercial vehicle venture with FAW
Group.

help a child with a task at which he
“Never
feels he can succeed - Maria Montessori

email us at:
goasheartbeat@herald-goa.com

“

Tuesday, 20 July, 2010

Where there is a will, there is a
way… is an age-old maxim that
holds true in the case of farming.
Exemplifying this is Father Inacio
Almeida SFX of Zagruti Nature
Farm, a pioneer of farming methods
in Goa and staunch promoter of
hybrid farming awareness

The Montessori Way of life

S

The Montessori Method of schooling
is said to be the best and one of the
most effective ways of teaching. The
worldwide teaching technique has
come into India and of late, is making
its presence felt in Goa as well
the sounds of words. “We don’t
start with teaching them the alphabets but start with the phonetics, which are pure sounds,”
says Elda. Maths is the fourth area
that they are taught, from the
basic concepts of numbers and
basic mathematical operations.
“The four areas are connected,
like for instance when learning
sensorial elements like putting
two triangles to form a rectangle, the child also learns geometry which is a mathematical
element,” explains Elda. “Apart
from the four spheres we also
have other classes like art and
craft, music and drama, anything that will help the child develop
over all,” say Singh.
The job of a Montessori teacher is not very
easy, as dealing with children can be difficult.
“The teachers need training and need to be
taught how to work with the different material
and to keep up with the contemporary techniques, as a material is scientifically designed
to help children to learn,” says Christine
Alphonso, from the Happy Hearts Enrichment
Centre in Porvorim. “The Montessori teacher
should first and foremost love children, should
be patient, be able to discipline the children
gently and for this they should be disciplined
themselves,” says Christine. “While choosing
a teacher for my school, I first let the children
interact with her and I observe how she interacts
with them and only after I am satisfied that
she can handle children only then comes the
part of their qualifications,” says Singh who
adds that the teacher should be able to go to
the level of the children’s understanding.
The best part of the job is working with the
children. “It’s real fun to work with the materials,
and seeing these children grow from tiny toddlers to the children set to go to school is overwhelming,” says Elda. The Montessori Method
brings out the best in the children and helps
them achieve wholesome development.

­H­O­R­O­S­C­O­P­E
It's time for a renewal of
your philosophy. Evaluate how you've changed
this year. You are facing
(21 Mar – 19 Apr)
a big renewal of some
kind -- maybe a literal contract renewal, maybe a new commitment
to your mate or maybe some overdue spiritual growth. Embrace it; it
shouldn't hurt much.

Try to think less about
money and more about
value. Quality is worth
the extra cost. Your pos(23 Sep – 22 Oct) sessions are causing
some weird issues today -- maybe
someone else feels envy, maybe
you feel trapped. It's time to clear
out anything you don't need and prepare your space for new growth.

The best way to help
someone is to listen and
be sensitive about their
concerns. You are prone
(20 Apr – 20 May) to dark moods, and even
if today is perfectly clear and sunny
outside, you still carry your own
storm cloud around with you. There's
a silver lining, of course -- you're
working through something big!

You need to have the
strength to tell the truth
when it is the hardest
thing to do. Share your
(23 Oct – 21 Nov)
vision with those who
know you best -- they can help you
get where you need to go. Your energy is just right for assembling a
team and moving forward to make
a real difference in the world.

A sudden interest in the
unknown will occupy
your mind and satisfy
your curiosity. You've got
(21 May – 21 Jun)
more going on today
than anyone realizes -- and you may
want to keep a few of your key insights to yourself. The advantage
should be dramatic when you reveal
all you know later on!

Things are getting very
complicated. You may
want to be alone to think
this through. You're not
(22 Nov – 21 Dec) usually that retiring, but
today, you've got too much on your
mind to mix and mingle. If you're
forced to hang out at a party or nightclub, you're at your best going oneon-one.

Expect an increase in
emotional intensity for a
few days. Think calming
thoughts. You may feel
(22 Jun – 22 Jul)
somewhat indecisive
right now, but that just means you
haven't finished collecting information. See if you can get your friends
or colleagues to fill you in before
you die of boredom!

If you want to make
headway, focus on your
objective. Ignore the distracting drama. Details
(22 Dec – 19 Jan) are normally somewhat
beneath you, but you're never afraid
to roll up your sleeves and really
get to work when you must. Today
is all about making columns of numbers add up right.

Probing beneath the surface will only bring up
dirt you don't need. Rise
above things. Your family
(23 Jul – 22 Aug) is important to you, especially on a day like today. You
should reach out to someone close
and make sure they know that you're
there for them. They appreciate the
gesture.

Don't ignore your need
to feel socially useful. Investigate volunteer opportunities. You finally
(20 Jan – 18 Feb) get the interview or date
you've been craving -- but you may
have a bit of stage fright! It's a
good time to take a deep breath
and remember who you really are.
Go for it!

It's time to roll up your
sleeves and delve deeply
into what you've been
avoiding. Your emotional
(23 Aug – 22 Sep)
side is taking charge
today -- and not a moment too soon!
You really need to make sure that
your energy is spent on activities
that are more deeply satisfying to
your heart and soul.

An emotional upheaval
will bring a much-needed
change of direction to
your life. Your profes(19 Feb – 20 Mar)
sional life takes a turn
for the weird today, as you find that
someone you trusted turns on you
-- though maybe in a minor way. It's
a good time to re-evaluate all your
relationships.

F

BY FEROZ FERNANDES
arming is one of Goa’s oldest practised professions and
efforts should be made to keep it alive. These efforts
should come from different quarters, especially the
public and government. Doing just that are the Pilar Fathers in Valpoi who have successfully implemented
hybrid farming with the subsidy available from the Agriculture
Department of the Government of Goa.
Zagruti Nature Farm run by the Pilar Fathers since 2006 in Bhirondem, Valpoi has become a green paradise. Fallow land
has seen the green shade even in summer. It’s a man made
wonder.
Can you imagine seeing papayas on a two and half meter
plant? Fr Inacio Almeida sfx said that this year, with the help
of the Department of Agriculture, they have planted 1,500 new hybrid
papaya saplings in the farm.
This year the farm has also planted a new variety of coconut saplings
which starts yielding in years and one fruit can produce 3 glasses of tender
coconut water, informed Fr Almeida. A hybrid coconut mixing Benaulim coconut variety with Andaman and Nicobar coconut has been worked out.
Goa Milk Dairy has subsidised one hector
hybrid fodder to be planted for the purpose of the Govolli tribes living in Satteri
in the farm. The Govollis who live in the
forest do not have access to fodder and
water for their cattle in the summer. This
gesture by the government will be a big
boost for milk production by the Govoliis.
Hybrid Palmolive plants which produce fruit in four years have already
started to deliver in just two and half
years. The farm is producing around
600kg of Palmolive seeds per month.
Not to forget the pineapple plants,
over 5,000 pineapple plants were
planted two years back which are already producing fruits. While with
the concept of inter cropping, 2,000
Banana saplings were panted. Today
the five feet plants are a delight to
see with each banana bunch weighs
around 40 kilos.

“

A 2,000 paradise tree nursThe farm is a pulpit and conery is being raised in the farm
to promote multi use plants in fessionary, It is a pulpit as peoGoa. The farm already has planted ple come over here and witness
over 1,000 trees in the last of couple the green miracle. The love for
of years.
nature and farming is felt by
Fresh honey is available through the
14 honey bee boxes in the farm. The all who visit the farm
honey bees enter the boxes and The farm is also a confessional.
deposit the honey in the People who come here acknowlhoneycomb inside the box edge that they have inherited
which is extracted through
vast land from their forefathers
a cylindrical container.
The farm has not lagged behind and they have kept it fallow.
in promoting and planting rare medicinal They request plants to grow in
plants and herbs which occupy 2 hectors their own farm - Fr Almeida
of farm land.
After 25 years, a fallow land was cultivate with the help of the
local farmers in the farm. “It’s a catchment area just above the bank
of the River Madei,” informed Fr Almeida.
Although the Farm is on the banks of the River Madei, Fr Inacio has
started water harvesting methods through the subsidy from the Forest department, thereby making good use of rain water and providing adequate
irrigation for the farm.

“

BY JANICE RODRIGUES
HERALD FEATURES
chooling is an important part of any
person’s life, and the beginning year
of schooling life defines how the person
will cope up with the rest of his journey
with education. In order to make the best of
the education given to a person he has to
learn how to take in the maximum from what
is taught. But what is taught from
the books is not enough,
what one needs is the allround development of the
individual.
The Montessori Method
of teaching concentrates on
the all round development
of the young minds. “Children at that age have a very
open mind and we try to help
the child develop in many
spheres,” says Vanita Singh
from the Kidzee School in
Dabolim. “The child’s mind is
like a sponge; it will absorb all
that is presented to it, even later
in life he is aware of all that is
taught to him when he was
young,” says Elda Dias form the
Andre School.
The schools following the Montessori Method
delve into the various aspects of a child’s growing
up. “Our method of teaching is ‘learn by doing’,
where the children are given material and are allowed to do the required tasks on their own, of
course with the help from the teachers,” says
Singh. This method of schooling teaches children
to be independent. “The basic aim of this method
of teaching, according to me, is to instil independence in the child,” says Rowena, another
‘directress’, as the teachers are called.
The schooling is divided into four major areas,
which are practical exercises, sensorial, language
and maths. Sometimes life can be really hard
on the child especially when the parents are
working and the child has to learn and develop
his motor skills on his own. “The practical exercises cover this area, where the children are
shown and are taught to carry out exercises as
simple as pouring liquids into glasses or even
putting on buttons and buckles,” explains Elda.
The sensorial part of teaching includes the
development of the child’s senses. “We concentrate on all the senses, it includes a variety
of activities that will help the child adjust to
the daily life,” says Elda. The activities are based
upon the perception of size, colour and shape.
The language aspects include the teaching of

(Lead picture) Fallow land that is cultivated after 25 years, New hybrid
variety of papaya (top left), Father’s rainwater harvesting (below)
Photos by Feroz Fernandes

Neil, Deepika get Street-smart for
Upcoming Film
W

hile shooting for Pradeep Sarkar’s ‘Lafangey Parindey’,
Neil and Deepika really had a tough time during the
training sequences. They were asked to work with rotten
fish and the pungent smell was choking the entire
team at the sets.
It was quite difficult for the stars to even
stand on the sets with the rotten fish
smell and the crew was searching for
cloth to cover their mouth and nose.
In an interview, director Pradeep
Sarkar revealed that initially he was
not sure whether Neil is the right
choice for the character named ‘One
Shot Nandu’ as it demands to be
suave and rogue. But now that he
is now working with him, all his
doubts seem to
have cleared up.
Talking about

Deepika, Pradeep said that she is a perfect Pinky because she is a born
winner. She is playing a blind girl in the film and every-time she internalised the blindness and before a take, she would often ask, “Dada, is
the look right?”
The director also added that the film took time because the crew
had to move for shooting to different places, in places as beautiful yet
diverse like Varanasi and Switzerland.
“‘Lafagey Parindey’ was filmed on sets and we kept to our schedule.
As far as interference goes, I’m from the ad world and I like to have
sounding boards around me. So whether it was Vinod Chopra or Adi,
I welcome suggestions,” said Pradeep Sarkar.
Yash Raj banner’s ‘Lafangey Parindey’ is about a group of youngsters
living in the backstreets of Mumbai. It is an unusual love story of Nandu
(Neil Nitin Mukesh) and Pinky (Deepika Padukone), whose path to love
is paved by friendship, grit and hope.
The film is set to release on August 20 this year.

Jolie and Zeta Jones battle to
play Elizabeth Taylor
C

atherine Zeta Jones and Angelina Jolie are competing to play Dame Elizabeth Taylor in a
Hollywood blockbuster about her love life. Industry sources have named Russell Crowe,
Clive Owen and Colin Farrell, as possible Burtons.
Mike Nichols, the Oscar winning American director, reportedly wants to make the film, which
would be based on the book ‘Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage
of the Century’. Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger, the husband and wife who wrote the
book, were given unprecedented access to a series of love letters written by Burton to Taylor
during the course of their two marriages. They were also given an unpublished first draft of
Taylor’s 1965 autobiography, as well as a portfolio of the screen siren’s favourite personal photographs, which are reproduced in the book.
Jolie, 35, and Zeta Jones, 40, had expressed an interest in playing Taylor.
Jolie has already been lined up to take on Taylor’s most famous role as Cleopatra.
It was while making the 1963 epic that Taylor met and fell in love with Burton.
She was already married and their public affair was condemned by the Vatican.
After divorcing Eddie Fisher, her third husband, in 1964, she married Welsh-born Burton.
Their stormy marriage lasted ten years, with Burton lavishing jewels and other extravagant
gifts on his wife. A year after their 1974 divorce, the couple wed again, but this time the union

lasted just ten months.
Taylor went on to marry twice more. Now 78, she lives alone in Beverly Hills, California, and
suffers from ill health. Burton died aged 58 from a brain haemorrhage at his home in Switzerland.
Catherine Zeta-Jones is also interested in playing the role. Both actresses would likely do a
fantastic job, and it would be interesting to see how they would handle the character. ZetaJones has been making it very known that she is interested in the role and is prepared to do
anything to receive it.

Lifestyle

Relationships

Sports

Business

Health

Art

Culture

Environment

Education

GOA’S HEARTBEAT

CURR

Tuesday, 20 July, 2010

WHAT’S UP IN GOA??
The birth anniversary of educationalist
Professor Vinayak Jeevaj Mahatme will
becelebratedonJuly22attheKalaAcademy,
Panjim.
A Konkani Musical Programme on National Integrationheld under theTiatrAcademy of Goa’s (TAG) scheme, ‘Production of
Musical Programmes on Patriotism/ National
Integration/ Communal Harmony’ will be held
onJuly27at7pmattheKalaAcademy,Panjim.
Call 2420452.
‘Enhancing Human Development Coverage: Skills for Reporting/Writing’, a 3-day
journalism workshop, organised by the International Centre Goa, JM Foundation for ExcellenceinJournalism,GoaUnionofJournalists,
MediaInformationandCommunicationCentre
of India in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert
Stiftung will be held from July 24 to 26 at the International Centre, Dona Paula. Call
9765404391.
GoaMontessoriTeachersTraining,Porvorim
is open for registration. Visit
www.happyhearts.goa.com.Call9881077069,
2412616 or 9881077601.
Arugam Bay, a range of colourful flip flops
by Prasad Bidapa will be presented at a
fashion show to be held on July 20 at 9pm
at Cape Town Café, Baga.
A blood donation, eye check-up and diabeties detection camp, organised by the
Panjim Ambulance and Welfare Trust and
the blood bank of the Goa Medical College
will takeplaceonJuly 24atHotel Manoshanti.
A physical fitness test for referees, conducted by the Goa Football Association will
take place on July 25 at 6:30am at the PJN
Stadium, Margao. Call 2225532‎.
Bonderam celebrations, organised by
PiedadeYouthAssociation will be celebrated
on August 28 at Divar Island.
AworkshoponcreativewritinginKonkani,
organisedbytheFreddyJDaCostaMemorial
Trust will take place on July 20 from 3:30pm
to 5:15pm at Grace Church Hall, Margao.
Call 9764706080 or 9821228684.
A Konkani literary contest in the Roman

script, organised by the Goan Review Art
Foundation (GRAF) is open for registration
till July 31. Call 2630139.
‘BasicinPhotography’,a6-dayphotography
course by the Click Photography School will
begin on July 26, every Monday to Saturday
from 3.30pm to 6pm at Aquem, Margao.
There will also be a Sunday batch from
August 1 from 10am to 1pm. Call
9822151419.
‘Giving Voice to India’, a music workshop
conducted by soprano Patricia Rozario and
pianist, writer, composer and broadcaster,
Mark Troop will take place from July 27 to 31
at the KalaAcademy, Panjim. Visit www.associationsargam.com/march2010/patricia2010.html. E-mail diasfluis@yahoo.com.
Call 9011051950.
‘Behaviour Change Communication’, an
interactive session will take place on July 21
from 6pm to 7:30pm at the International
Centre Goa, Dona Paula. Call 9765404391.
How self-help groups are making differences in peoples lives in Goa will be the
topic of discussion at the Friday Balcao
session to be held on July 23 from 4pm tp
6pm at the Goa Desc Resource Centtre,
Mapusa. E-mail goadesc@gmail.com.
Tailoring, machine and hand embroidery,
crochet, flower making, fabric painting,
candle making and bakery and cookery
courses, organised by Caritas, Goa will be
held from August for a period of 6 months at
Dr Graciano de Santana Ribeiro Empowerment Centre, Porvorim. The courses are
specially designed for the benefit and empowerment of women. Call 2416716 or
9765256547.
‘Yuva Goa 2020’, an incident writing competition,organisedbyHaunsTheatreTraining
Centre, Ponda is open for registration till July
31. E-mail haunstheatre@rediffmail.com.
Call 9823229961 or 9823645380.
The third painting workshop of 15 artists
fromMumbai,Baroda,Delhi,Kolkata,Ahmedabad, Kochi and Goa is being held till July 25
at the Kerkar Art Complex, Calangute. It is
organised by Gallery Beyond, Mumbai and
the Kerkar Art Complex. Call 2276017.

HERALD FEATURES
algado Konknni Akademi (DKA) in collaboration with
Tiatr Akademi of Goa (TAG) celebrated the birth centenary of DKA’s founder, late Fr Freddy J da Costa on
July 19, 2010. The function was held at Tiatr Akademi
Goa’s Auditorium, Campal, in the presence of Jose Salvador
Fernandes, Secretary of DKA, Tomazinho Cardozo, President of
TAG, Fr Conceicao D’Silva, Parish Priest of Carambolim Church
and Premanand Lotlikar, Director of DKA.
The function began with a cultural programme featuring tiatr
artists Succor de St Cruz and his daughter, Sonia Fernandes
singing songs like ‘Goemchi Girastkai’, ‘Mobile’, ‘Teen Part Jivitache’ and ‘Niz Goenkar’ and comedians Pitush, Agnel and
Fatima took the audience on a laugh riot.
“Fr Freddy was the dynamic founder president of Dalgado
Konknni Akademi. He was very motivated and loved working
for promoting Romi Konkani. The true way of celebrating his
day will be encouraging the younger generations to read and
write in Romi Konkani. As a priest, he involved himself in sociocultural movements. Next year onwards, we plan to celebrate
his day with a new concept, said Premanand Lotlikar.

Birth Centenary Celebration
for Professor V J Mahatme
HERALD FEATURES
ast students and trustee members
of the Institute of Instruction, Panjim addressed a press conference in
the city yesterday. It was held to pay
tribute to one of Goa’s leading educationists, Professor Vinayak Jeevaj Mahatme, founder of the then Institute
de Instruciao, currently, Institute of
Instruction, Panjim’s second school
after the Lyceum to provide an English
medium education, post Liberation.
The ex-students of the Institute of
Instuction, Panjim Dr Ramesh Dhume,
Vavan Bhate, Rajan Bhatikar, Manguirish Pai Raikar and Shakuntala Mahatme and Vallabh Prabhu, the last
two being main trustee and member
trustee, respectively and ex-students
too gave details of the birth centenary
celebration. The tribute function is to
be held on July 22 at 5:30pm at the
Black Box of the Kala Academy, Panjim.
The chief guest for the function will
be Shashikala Kakodkar, former Chief
Minister and the keynote address will
be given by advocate M S Usgaonkar,
who also taught at the school. There
will also be a ‘sugam sangeet’ by professional musicians.
Before this, his ex-students present
sang the Professors praises and fondly
remembered their days with him.

P

The Fusion
of Melody
and
Emotion

Among his many achievements he
is highly credited for starting the Institute de Instruciao in 1933, rehabilitating the youth, holding the school
together during its post-Liberation,
transitional period from Portuguese
medium to English, for commencing
a night school in 1962 and his immense
help to underprivileged children.
Listening to the narrations from the
ex-students, it can be deduced that
the Professor was a dedicated and exceptional teacher who gave his students character along with an
education that would hold value for
life. He believed that everyone must
have an opportunity to learn, such was
his motive behind the opening of the
school. He was teacher to students
who would later become leading members of society. It was also learnt that
he was a master in science, physics,
mathematics, chemistry and space
geometry.
Plans to shift the school from its
current premise which is in three separate buildings, to a single, newly constructed building, by availing of the
governmental super school complex
education programme for schools in
Panjim are in the pipeline, informed
the ex-students present. This was the
Professors lifelong dream.

Photos by Chiquitita D’Sousa

A Break from Legalities –
A Peek into History

Instructions
for Sudoku
SUDOKU SOL 608
9 x 9 letter:
To solve a Sudoku
puzzle, every number from 1 to 9 must
appear in each of
the nine vertical
columns, in each of
the nine horizontal
rows and in each of
the nine boxes

GARFIELD

HERALD FEATURES
inus the Gavel and Wig: Justice N A Britto, Justice A Oka and Justice F
Reis, judges of the High Court – Bombay, at Goa, visited Ancestral Goa at
the Big Foot in Lotoulim on Sunday, July 18, 2010. They were taken around the
project by Karishma Alvares, daughter of the owner and the owner Maendra
Alvares himself.
The guests were shown how man lived in harmonious co existence with the
ecology and had a co habitant relationship with nature, the rural customs, traditions and the ethnic life style which is depicted in a frozen form at the
project.
They also visited the Cross Museum, which houses over 1082 crosses from
the world over. Justice Britto exclaimed that this was a very impressive and exclusive collection.
They also stopped by The Big Foot Art Gallery and witnessed Maendra’s exhibition ‘GREEN’ that hosts a variety of works done with mixed media that includes umbrellas, wood, metal and paint.
“It was a truly unforgettable experience,” penned Justice Oka.

M
SOUTH POLE
HERALD FEATURES
n ‘A’ level music holder at the Chetam’s School of
Music, Manchester, Britain and current student
at the Royal Northern College of Music also in Manchester, Master W P Julian Clef, student of Professor
Murray Mc Lanchlan gave a piano recital over the
weekend at the Kala Academy, Panjim. He played a
number of pieces to an appreciative audience. His
performance was laced with melody and emotion.

Barath M won the boys title
scoring 6 points while in the
girls section, Vidula Dempo won
against Aditi Prabhugaonkar to
take the top spot in the State
under-19 chess tournament at
Janata Vachnalaya, Vasco.
Barath lost the last game to
K. Tushar in the last round but
the gallant victories in the earlier
rounds were enough for him to
be champion. After beating
Barath M., K. Tushar clinched
the second spot.
In the girls category Aditi had
to settle for the second spot.
Vidula won all the games and
scored 5 points out of 5.
The top two players in boys
and girls categories will represent Goa at the Nationals to be
held in Gujarat in September.
Following are the prize winners.
Boys - 1st Barath M.(6), 2nd
K. Tushar(6), 3rd Rajaryan Kuvelkar(5.5), 4th Eeshan Gad (5),
5th Stanford Pereira(5) and

6th Aniket Naresh Naik (5).
Girls: 1st Vidula Dempo (5),
2nd Aditi Prabhugaonkar(4),
3rd Pranali Desai (4), 4th Sakshi Naik Gaonkar (4), 5th Swera
Braganza (4) and 6th Sachi Bandodkar (3).
In the boys category there
was a tie between Barath M.
and K.Tushar as both the players
scored 6 each. Also there was
tie for 4th, 5th and 6th positions
as Eeshan Gad, Stanford Pereira
and Aniket N. Naik scored 5each.
In girls category there was a
tie for 2nd to 5th positions as
Aditi Prabhugaonkar, Pranali
Desai, Sakshi Naik Gaonkar and
Swera Braganza scored 4 each.
However, applying Bucholz tiebreaking system they were
placed from 2nd to 5th positions. There was also a tie for
6th position as 6 players scored
3 each. Due to application of
the tie-breaking system Sachi
Bandodkar was placed 6th.
Local special prizes were
awarded to Anirudh Parsekar in
boys and Saloni Parab in girls

Goa U-19 girls narrowly missed
on qualifying for the quarter-finals of 9th Junior Nationals at
Punjab Engineering College,
Chandigarh after losing on goal
difference.
Goa defeated Kerala 3-1 but
in the other tie, Sikkim defeated
Himachal Pradesh 30-0 to put
paid to Goa's hopes.
Sikkim as well as Goa finished
with seven points each, but
Sikkim had a plus 34 goal difference to Goa’s plus 26.

Goa opened the scoring in
the 15th minute through Valerie
Cardoza. Cassandra Fernandes
doubled the lead eight minutes
later.
Captain Stessi Cardoza scored
for the third game in succession
in the 60th minute.
The match was delayed by
one hour due to the heavy rain.
Goa coach Maymol Rocky
stated, “The girls played so
well and won the match but in
the end it was our bad luck losing on an inferior goal difference."

Samir Noronha, who won two
bronze medals in m springboard
and 3, sprinboard diving at 37th
Junior National and 27th Sub-Junior National Aquatic Championships in Bangalore.

PY Nuvem sail into semis
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
CALANGUTE, JULY 19

Parish Youth, Nuvem prevailed
over Football Club of Siolim 54 via the tie-breaker after both
teams were involved in a 1-all
draw to move into the semi-finals of Vagator Parish Youth Trophy Inter-V illage football
tournament organised by Vagator Parish Youth at Ozrant
ground, Vagator on Monday.
Siolim began on a promising
note and took the lead in the
8th minute through Domnic D'Souza off a Melroy D'Souza pass.
Down by a goal, Nuvem fought

back and could have equalised
in the 12th minute but Xavier
Colaco shot wide off Neves
Noronha. Neves Noronha made
amends for the earlier miss by
his colleague scoring in the
20th minute off a Jose Colaco
move to bring his team on level
terms.
C h a n g i n g o v e r, S i o l i m
mounted pressure on Nuvem
defense and could have forged
ahead in the 45th minute
through Vinay Pednekar header
but Nuvem keeper Flyod Colaco
came up with a brilliant save.
Nuvem did not lag behind and

attacked the Siolim citadel time
and again but failed to score.
Daniel Colaco almost scored
the winner for Nuvem in the
dying minutes but the ball hit
the post and went out of play.
With scores even, the winners
were decided on penalties.
Parish Youth Nuvem got the better of Football Club of Siolim 43. Neves Noronha, Daniel
Colaco, Xavier Colaco and Cristo
Colaco converted for Parish
Youth, Nuvem while Francis Fernandes, Melroy D'Souza and
Sarvesh Shirodker were on target for Siolim.

Bulpin to take charge of
India U-19 in I-League
PTI
NEW DELHI, JULY 19

Former Philippines national
team manager Desmond Bulpin
is set to take charge of the Indian Under-19 football side
which will be fielded in the ILeague from the coming season,
according to AIFF sources.
Englishman Bulpin was recommended to the All India Football Federation by the national
coach and Bulpin's compatriot
Bob Houghton for the job.
Bulpin was former manager
of English Championship side
Queens Park Rangers and youth
team coach at English Premier
League side Tottenham Hotspur
where he discovered England
international strikers like Peter
Crouch and Jermain Defoe.
Bulpin met with All India Football Federation top brass at the
AIFF headquarters on Monday

and will be in Goa on Tuesday
to have a first interaction with
the players now based there.
“Bulpin is in the country and
he will take formal charge
shortly. He will meet the players
in Goa," a top AIFF source said.
Fifty-nine-year-old Bulpin has
more than 25 years of coaching
experience at the top level and
he had a stint with top Singapore side Tampine Rovers.
Before leaving for a twomonth training tour of 29 national players to Portugal for
the preparations of 2011 Asian
Cup, Houghton had said that
Bulpin will take over the Under19 side soon.
The Under-19 side plays an
important part in AIFF's scheme
of things with the federation
planning to groom the players
for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

Games for athletes,
not officials: Gill
AGENCIES
NEW DELHI, JULY 19

The pull-out of prominent international athletes less than three
months before the Commonwealth Games has not gone down
well with Sports Minister, M S
Gill.
A day after Beijing Olympic
gold-medallist, Chris Hoy of
Scotland became the latest athlete to withdraw from the October 3-14 event, Gill expressed
strong displeasure and said he
would tell Commonwealth
Games Federation President,
Mike Fennell to look into the
matter.
“Drifting away from the

games by stars like Hoy, (Usain)
Bolt and (Shelly Ann) Fraser is
not a good sign. Sportsmen are
stars that fans come out to see
and they determine the success
of a sporting event,” he said,
and added that the country did
not want CWG to just become
“the meeting ground of sporting
officials from around the world”.
“There is no need for Fennell
to bring an army of officials if
the athletes don't participate,”
he said at the inauguration of
the Dr SP Mukherjee Sports
Complex. The matter will also
be discussed at the Commonwealth Nations' Sports Ministers
meet on October 4.

Pg17

SPORTS
GOA, Tuesday, 20 July, 2010

Goalline tech off
FIFA’s Cardiff menu
REUTERS
LONDON, JULY 19

Goalline technology will not be
discussed by soccer’s law-makers in Wales this week, despite
an assurance from FIFA President
Sepp Blatter during the World
Cup that it would be.
The technical sub-committee
of the International Football Association Board (IFAB)—soccer’s
law-making body—will meet in
Cardiff on Wednesday.
However, there will only be
one item on the agenda which
was set in May—the continuing
experiment with additional assistant referees behind the goals
as trialled in the Europa League
last season.
Following England’s disallowed goal against Germany in
the second round of the World
Cup on June 27, Blatter said “it
would be a nonsense not to re-

open the file on goalline technology”.
“ We w i l l l o o k a g a i n a t
goalline technology at the business meeting of the IFAB in
Cardiff in July,” Blatter promised.
But a FIFA statement on Monday confirmed: “the only point
on the agenda will be the review
and eventual approval of the requests made by various confederations and member
associations of FIFA to implement the experiments with two
additional assistant referees for
(the next two seasons).”
The debate was re-ignited
after a shot from England midfielder Frank Lampard landed a
metre over the goalline after
hitting the bar but was not spotted by the referee or his assistant despite millions around the
world seeing clearly a legitimate

AGENCIES
BERLIN, JULY 19

goal had been scored.
The earliest date for any debate about goalline technology would be at the next IFAB
business meeting in October.
Any law-changing decision on
goal-line technology would
not be taken until IFAB’s next
annual meeting in March next
year.
IFAB, which conisists of one
representative from each of the
four British associations and
four from FIFA, rejected the implementation of goalline technology in March.
IFAB sanctioned the first experiment with goalline technology in 2006, but a
chip-in-the-ball system used at
the World Under-17 championships and Club World Cup
matches in 2007 proved inconclusive and has not been used
since.

Spaniard Dani Pedrosa denied
compatriot Jorge Lorenzo a
fourth win in a row at the German MotoGP on Sunday while
world champion Valentino Rossi
narrowly missed a podium finish on his return from a broken
leg.
Honda rider Pedrosa, second
in the standings, finished 3.355
seconds ahead of Yamaha's
championship leader Lorenzo,
who had started on pole but
had to settle for second place
in a re-started race following a
crash on lap nine at the Sachsenring.
Rossi, returning just six weeks
after he broke his leg, finished
fourth after being edged out by
Australian Casey Stoner at the

Mother of Ronaldo’s baby
is American waitress
AGENCIES
LONDON, JULY 19

The mother of Cristiano
Ronaldo's baby boy is a penniless
American waitress, who had a
one-night stand with the footballer, it has emerged.
According to a friend, last
summer, on a trip to Los Angeles, Ronaldo strutted into a
re s t a u r a n t a n d s p o t t e d a
woman.
"Ronni looked the girl in the
eye and said extremely directly:
'Me, you, f*** f***,'" the Mirror
quoted the friend as saying.
"She was taken aback and just
said: 'What!' She didn't actually
understand what he
meant. She was totally nonplussed

Liverpool sign
Joe Cole
AGENCIES
LONDON, JULY 19

Liverpool have signed Joe Cole
on a four-year deal - subject to
a medical - following his release
by Chelsea.
The 28-year-old England midfielder left Stamford Bridge in
June after failing to agree a new
contract with the Premier
League champions.
He was linked to Arsenal and
Tottenham but has opted for
Liverpool, who failed to qualify
for the Champions League.
Cole's arrival follows winger
Yossi Benayoun's move from Anfield to Chelsea for an undisclosed fee in July.
The West Ham academy graduate becomes Liverpool 's second summer signing after Serbia
forward Milan Jovanovic arrived
on a three-year contract from
Standard Liege.
Cole joined Chelsea from West
Ham for £6.6m in 2003 and
scored 40 goals in 282 appearances, winning three Premier
League titles and two FA Cups.
In June he claimed unspecified "political rather than footballing reasons" had led to his
departure, but he insisted manager Carlo Ancelotti had nothing
to do with it.
"It is not financial and it is
nothing to do with Carlo," Cole
said at the time. "I love Carlo. I
think he is a top guy and a top
manager.”
"I loved my time at Chelsea, I
love the fans but it is a story for
another day and I will tell it but
now is not the time."
After recovering from 10
months out with a ruptured cruciate ligament, Cole grew frustrated at having to settle for a
bit-part role in his final season
at London club.
He was mainly used as a substitute and, when he did play,
Ancelotti mainly deployed him
in a wide position.

Pedrosa wins German
MotoGP, Rossi 4th

Spaniard Dani Pedrosa
celebrates victory on
the podium.

"The window by his table was
steamed up, so he drew a love
heart on it with his finger. Then
he said, 'Me, you, kiss,' and the
penny dropped.
"That's typical Ronni -- he pretends his English is terrible
when it suits him, and he comes
straight to the point. It was just
yet another one-night stand
and Ronnie assumed he would
never see her again," the friend
added.
However, after finding out
she was pregnant, and convinced that Ronaldo was the father, the woman tracked him
down through his agent, Jorge
Mendes.
Mendes told Ronaldo, who
immediately told his mother Dolores, 55, and sisters Elma, 34,
and 33-year-old Liliana Catia.
It was agreed that Ronaldo
would give DNA for a paternity
test once the baby was born and
provide support
for the mother
and child if it
proved to be
his.

The friend said: "Ronni is a
multi-millionaire playboy, but
when it comes to family, he's
very much his mother's son.
"They are a close-knit, traditional ¬Roman Catholic family
and the minute paternity was
established there was absolutely no doubt that Ronni
would be doing the right
thing.”
"There was simply no question of him walking away. Even
if he had wanted to, Dolores
just would not have entertained
it for one moment.”
"This is her grandchild and
there was only one option for
the child's upbringing -- with
her and her daughters in Portugal. The child's mother would
be properly provided for to enable her to live a life in keeping
with the upbringing the child
will have.”
"Ronni has not decided
whether to involve the mother
in his son's life. He thinks he
might tell him who she is.”
"Dolores's view is that if the
child eventually decides to
make contact with the mother,
it is important she is living an
affluent lifestyle," the friend
added.

I’ve lost a lot more
than won: Tiger Woods
AGENCIES
LONDON, JULY 19

Tiger Woods was delighted
with his performance from
tee to green and in despair
over his putting after the
British Open final round on
Sunday.
"I drove it great all week,
hit my irons pretty good and
did not putt well except for
the first day," the world
number one told reporters
after a closing 72 gave him
a three-under tally of 285.
"I feel satisfaction in the
sense I drove it on a string all
week and hit my irons pretty
good (but) you just can't play
and expect to win golf tournaments if you have nine or
10 three-putts for a week.”
"No one can win doing
that," added Woods. "Driving-wise it's better than it's
been in years. Iron play, not
quite as sharp as I need to
have it, and my putting is
way off.
"I've got to clean that up
before I tee it up again."
At the start of the week
Woods took the radical
step of ditching the putter
he had used for 11 years
in favour of a new Nike
model.
The 34-year-old American
put the old wand back in
his bag on Sunday but was
unable to exorcise the putting demons that had
haunted him for the previous two rounds at St Andrews.
"The greens were a little
bit faster today than they
were the first day," said
Woods. "I just didn't feel
comfortable with my speed
so I went back to my old

putter.
"That's just the way it
goes. I'm not going to win
all of them, I've lost a lot
more than I've won."
The 14-times major champion, who was attempting
to capture a record third St
Andrews Open after lifting
the Claret Jug here in 2000
and 2005, said he needs to
be less erratic than he has
been of late.
"I've got to keep building,
keep putting things back to
where they're more consistent day in and day out,"
said Woods who also won
the third major of the year
at Hoylake in 2006.
"But just like today, got
to not have those holes
where it breaks momentum," he said, referring to
two double bogeys he suffered on the front nine.
"Once I build some positive momentum I've got to
keep that going."
The second of his double
bogeys came at the par-four
seventh where he was up
against the wall of a fairway
bunker. Woods then had to
play back down the fairway
before he pitched short and
three-putted.
Woods may have started
the week wondering about
the reception he would receive from the Scottish fans
as a result of the revelations
over his extra-marital affairs
last year.
He need not have worried.
"The people were great,
fantastic. Unfortunately I
wasn't in the lead but still
it was very warm," the American said.

I won’t blame
Cesc for
leaving: Henry
AGENCIES
NEW YORK, JULY 19

Thierry Henry has said he would
understand if Arsenal skipper
C e s c Fa b re g a s re t u r n s t o
Barcelona this summer.
Spain international Fabregas
has consistently been linked
with a move back to the club
Arsenal signed him from as a
teenager, with Barca's interest
firming since the end of last
season.
"It is hard because the guy is
from Barcelona. I wouldn't like
to be in his shoes that's all I can
say," Henry told Radio Five's
Sportsweek programme.
"I wouldn't like to be in his
position because he is from
there and he loves Arsenal.”

last corner for the final podium
place.
With eight races completed
and 10 rounds of the championship to go, Lorenzo leads with
185 points. He has won five
races and finished no worse than
second all season.
Pedrosa has 138 and Italian
Andrea Dovizioso is third with
102 points.
Lorenzo led until the race was
red-flagged when Frenchman
Randy de Puniet crashed at turn
four, his bike bursting into
flames in the middle of the track,
and brought down Spaniards
Aleix Espargaro and Alvaro
Bautista.
De Puniet, who had also
crashed heavily in qualifying,
suffered a broken left leg according to the championship

Former hockey star
assaults umpire
AFP
CHENNAI, JULY 19

Ex India hockey player Sunil Ekka
whipped out his hockey stick
and struck umpire RS Suriya
Prakash during a game between
Army XI and ONGC at the AllIndia MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup.
The outburst was an outcome
of Prakash’s decision to issue
Army XI’s Preetinder Singh a second green card after his altercation with ONGC’s Mukesh Kumar.
As a result of Singh’s dismissal,
Ekka got into a tussle with the
match official and hit him on the
back of his head which left him
seriously injured and Prakash was
later rushed to the hospital.
"I've been officiating at the
national level for the last 21
years and have never come
across such behaviour. Sunil has
played for India and represents

the Army but he obviously lacks
discipline,” said Prakash.
According to the International
Hockey Federation’s code of
conduct, ambushing an official
is a Level 2 offence. “Sunil Ekka
has been banned from the rest
of the tournament. Once we get
the report from the match officials, we will take a final decision,” claimed tournament
director Mohammad Muneer.
"I am also going to send my report to Hockey India. As this is an
all-India tournament, we can't ban
him for six months, but HI has
the right to impose the maximum
(six-month) ban on him. This is
unacceptable behaviour. Our national game is already in a quagmire and such incidents can only
hurt the sport," Muneer added.
ONGC later went on to clinch
the prestigious hockey cup 3-1.

website.
Espargaro, who was not
among just 13 riders taking the
re-start, was later diagnosed
with a cracked vertebra.
After a 25-minute delay for
the track to be cleaned up, Pedrosa re-grouped after the restart to claim a lead he never
relinquished while Rossi fought
side by side with Stoner for third
place.
Spanish riders won all three
categories with Toni Elias taking
his third Moto2 win of the season to extend his overall lead
to 42 points over Switzerland's
Thomas Luthi.
In the 125cc class, 17-yearold Marc Marquez's dominance
continued with his fifth win in
a row for a 26-point lead in the
championship.

Somdev back
to career-best
ranking
AGENCIES
NEW DELHI, JULY 19

A semi-final appearance at the
Aptos Challenger tournament
helped India's Somdev Devvarman rise back to his career-best
singles ranking of 103 in the
ATP charts.
Somdev lost to Donald Young
in the last four stages but the
effort was enough to jump two
places up.
Yuki Bhambri, who has resumed practice after nursing a
broken ankle, has lost 14 positions to slip to 489th spot.
In the doubles chart, veterans
Leander Paes (6) and Mahesh
Bhupati (7) kept their places in
t h e t o p - 1 0 w h i l e Ro h a n
Bopanna rose a rung to careerbest 38.
Meanwhile, a struggling Sania
Mirza gained a position to be
at 131 in the WTA singles chart.

Hard work starts now: Wenger
AGENCIES
LONDON, JULY 19

Arsene Wenger will take his Arsenal squad out to a 10-day
training camp in Austria insisting
the hard work starts now.
Wenger will look to mould
them into a team capable of
winning a first Barclays Premier
League title since 2004.
The Gunners boss ran the rule
over summer signings Laurent
Koscielny and Marouane
Chamakh during pening pre-season friendly at power League
Two outfit Barnet, where youngster Jay Simpson netted a double
in a 4-0 win.
Wenger changed his entire
line-up at half-time, and used
three goalkeepers, although
Manuel Almunia - whose position as Arsenal number one is
by no means secure - was not
available because of illness.
It was a welcome change for
the Arsenal manager to get back
to football following a summer
of continued speculation over
the future of captain Cesc Fabregas, which Wenger maintains
must now stop.
While Fabregas, who has five

Capello will
axe Terry:
Cannavaro
AGENCIES
LONDON, JULY 19

Fabio Capello is likely to drop
John Terry from the England
team next season, according to
Italy defender Fabio Cannavaro.
Cannavaro got an insight into
Capello's ruthless style of management when he worked with
the Italian at Real Madrid and
the Juventus star is convinced
Terry is in severe danger of losing his England place after his
controversial comments at the
World Cup.Earlier this year
Capello had stripped Terry of
the captaincy following revelations about the Chelsea player's
affair with the ex-partner of former team-mate Wayne Bridge.
And Capello was further angered when Terry used a press
conference during the World
Cup to claim that he was ready
to confront the Italian over his
tactics and team selection.
Terry was forced to back
down after Capello called his
comments a "big mistake" but
he gave a poor performance as
England slumped to a 4-1 second round defeat against Germany.
Cannavaro is convinced
Capello will make changes for
the 2012 European Championship qualifying campaign,
with Terry the most likely to
lose his place.

years of his contract left to run,
and fellow World Cup finalist
Robin van Persie will not be asked
to return until the Emirates Cup
begins on July 31, the rest of the
Arsenal players who were out in
South Africa will join up in Austria, where warm-up matches
have been arranged against
Sturm Graz and SC Neusiedl.
Arsenal will then tackle AC
Milan and Celtic in the Emirates
Cup, before their final friendly
away to Legia Warsaw on August
7 ahead of the trip to Liverpool
for their Barclays Premier League
opener.
Last season, the Gunners once
again failed to sustain a title
challenge as Wenger's young
side could not produce mature
performances when it really
mattered to keep pace with
Chelsea and Manchester United.
Wenger, whose contract runs
out in the summer of 2011, is
determined this time, things will
be different.
"We finished third last season,
so we of course try to improve,"
said the Gunners boss, whose
'Invincibles' team went through
the entire 2003/2004 season un-

beaten the last time they finished top.
"Manchester City have now
joined in on the big targets, so
it will be hard."
Wenger continued: "We have
six players coming back to join
us on Monday when we go to
Austria, and then the hard work
starts.
"We have some tougher challenges coming up, especially in
the Emirates Cup, so those
games will give the new signings
an opportunity to adapt, but we
have to give them some time."
Theo Walcott was back in action yesterday, having been a
controversial omission from
Fabio Capello's England squad
which under performed at the
World Cup.
Wenger believes the 21-yearold "looks sharp", and feels Walcott will emerge a better player
from the experience.
"Theo is committed in training and he has always shown
that when he is in trouble or
not rated as much as he should
be, he responds well on the
pitch," said the Frenchman.
"I called him when he was not

picked, and tried to help him
focus on the future.
"He is a young boy and has it
all in front of him."
Wenger will look to further
strengthen his squad before the
new campaign, but appears to
have cooled his interest in Fulham's Australia international
keeper Mark Schwarzer.
While both William Gallas and
Mikael Silvestre are expected to
move elsewhere after their contracts came to an end, veteran
Sol Campbell could yet take up
the offer of a one-season deal.

Messi to start own
clothing range
AGENCIES
LONDON, JULY 19

Footballer Lionel Messi is all set
to take over the fashion world,
as he is planning to launch his
own clothing range.
And the Barcelona and Argentina hero is counting on
some famous pals to help him
make it a success.
His idea is to sign a sport,
movie, or music star as an ambassador in each major city
around the globe.
"I have been working on it for
a few months. It would be me
in Barcelona. We've approached
Wayne for Manchester, Frank
for London, and Colin for
Dublin," the Sun quoted him as
saying.
"We have spoken with Jay-Z
for New York and the dream is
to have David for LA. I already
have (footballer) Alessandro
Nesta and (rapper) Lupe Fiasco
in Milan and Chicago."
"It will be high-end clothes
and accessories for men. I''d like
to open the initial shops by next
summer."
"If we get all the names we
are trying for, we can be the
most famous and best men''s
fashion brand in the world," he
added.

pg18:Layout 1 7/19/2010 11:16 PM Page 1

SPORTS

Barath, Vidula State
U-19 chess champs
Pg 16

Mother of Ronaldo’s baby
is American waitress
Pg 17

GOA, TUESDAY, 20 JULY, 2010
www.oheraldo.in

Rain plays spoilsport on Day 2

Indian doctor
invited by
Murali for
farewell Test
AGENCIES
GALLE, JULY 19

Unrelenting rain played spoilsport as the second day of the
first cricket Test between India
and Sri Lanka was called off
without a single ball being
bowled here today.
Sri Lanka remained on their
overnight score of 256 for two
and the washout has now
greatly diminished the prospects
of a result in Muttiah Muralitharan's swansong Test.
The outfield was already wet
due to overnight showers and
things only got worse due to
more rain this morning.
The brief appearance made

by the sun in the afternoon,
which prompted the ground
staff to take off the covers,
turned out to be a false dawn
as it started pouring soon after,
leaving the match officials with
no choice but to call off the day's
proceedings at about 1500 hrs
(local Time).
It is monsoon season in Sri
Lanka right now and the weatherman has predicted overcast
conditions for all five days of
the match.
The Test has risen in profile
as veteran Sri Lankan off-spinner
Muralitharan is set to bid adieu
to his 18-year-old career at the
end of it but rains gods are

KP not to
captain again
AGENCIES
NOTTINGHAM, JULY 19

Dashing batsman Kevin
Pietersen said that he will
never again captain England
again as he is a father now.
Pietersen has a two-monthold son called Dylan with his
wife, Liberty X singer Jessica
Taylor, 30.
The Daily Star quoted
Pietersen as saying: "Dylan's
totally changed my life. He
made me realise I won't ever
be captain again -- I have different priorities now."
"I still love to play. Ideally,
I'd like to keep playing for another five years or so," he
added.

threatening to play spoilsport.
The Lankans have dominated
whatever little play has been
possible so far. Captain Kumar
Sangakkara and Tharanga
Paranavitana struck centuries
on the opening day as Sri Lanka
laid the foundation for a mammoth first innings against a lacklustre India.
Sangakkara (103) notched up
his 22nd century while Paranavitana (110 batting) scored his
maiden ton, exposing India's
bowling failities to pile up 256
for two on a rain-truncated first
day.
Electing to bat, the Sri Lankan
batsmen capitalised on easy bat-

Swann charged
with drunk driving
AGENCIES
NOTTINGHAM, JULY 19

Police have
confirmed
they have
charged
Graeme
Swann, the
England offspinner, with
drink driving.
Swann, who is England's current Player of the Year, was
stopped in the West Bridgford
area of Nottingham on April 2
and a spokeswomen said the
charge had been brought last
month.
''Graeme Swann, 31, of West
Bridgford, was charged on 8
June 2010 with driving a motor
vehicle when alcohol level was
above the limit," a statement
said.

Karnataka hammered Jharkhand
6-1 to storm into the pre-quarter
finals of Santosh trophy National
Football Championship in
Kolkata on Monday.
The Garden City boys were
impressive right from the outset
and had no problem to defeat
the hapless Jharkhand who
failed to garner even a point
from their two encounters.
Xavier Vijay Kumar opened the
scoring in the 31st minute, while
Jharkhand stunned their opponents three minutes later through
Ravindra Singh's equalizer.
Former Churchill Brothers
striker R.C. Prakash extended

his side’s lead at the stroke of
half time and Karnataka went
for the break with the scoreline
reading 2-1.
Karnataka pumped in four
more goals after the break to
sign off the group stage on a
thumping note. J. Murali scored
the third goal in the first minute
of second half, while Satish
Kumar sent his opponent at the
back foot scoring the fourth in
the 72nd minute. Ngurneilal
then, scored a brace (73', 88')
to complete the rout.
Andhra Pradesh finished their
campaign on a winning note
edging past Chandigarh 2-1 in
their last Cluster II encounter.
The win was not enough for the

Andhra Pradesh to qualify for
the next round as Maharashtra
topped the group with 9 points,
while Andhra Pradesh finished
second with 6.
Maharashtra continued their
undefeated streak registering
their third successive win to
move into the pre-quarter finals.
In the last Cluster II encounter
at Barasat Stadium, Maharashtra
scored a 4-1 facile victory over
Tripura to lock horns with Karnataka
in the pre-quarters on July 21.
Anees Koralyadan scored an
impressive brace, while Darren
Caldeira and Surojit Bose were
the other scorers. Kiran Chetri
scored the consolation goal for
Tripura.

Contador takes lead
Stage won by Voeckler
AGENCIES
FRANCE, JULY 19

Andy Schleck lost his yellow jersey as overall
leader of the Tour de France to defending champion Alberto Contador on Monday after suffering
mechanical failure at a disastrous moment.
Afterward, a furious Schleck accused Contador of
taking the jersey unfairly because he didn’t wait while
Schleck stopped to fix the chain on his bike. Contador
insisted he didn’t know Schleck had a problem.
French champion Thomas Voeckler won the

day’s race, the second of the
four big stages in the Pyrenees, with a solo ride.
Schleck had accelerated less than 4 kilometers from
the top of the major climb of the day, the Port de Bales,
but almost immediately lost his chain, forcing him to
stop on the side of the road and wait for assistance.
He then had to force his way back through the
field as he attempted to catch up with Contador
and the other leaders in the overall competition,
but was unable to make up enough time. He finished
39 seconds behind Contador, who now holds the
yellow jersey by eight seconds.

India beat France 4-3
hockey test
AGENCIES
PARIS, JULY 19

Ace drag-flicker Sandeep Singh
continued his red-hot form and
struck twice as India defeated
France 4-3 in the keenly-contested
first hockey Test at the National
Institute of Sport and Expert Performance (INSEP) in Paris.
India struck goals through
Sandeep, who converted two
penalty corners in the 12th and
65th minute, Tushar Khandker
(5th) and captain Rajpal Singh
(69th), while Fredric Soyez scored
a hat trick (6th, 51st and 68th)
for France in the first game of the
three-match series on Sunday.
High on confidence after their
2-0 series win over Belgium last

week, the Indians began aggressively and nearly took the lead
in the third minute but for
Dharamvir Singh, who fumbled
inside the circle.
But two minutes later, India
surged ahead when Khandker sailed
the ball into the net past French
goalkeeper Mathias Dierckems after
he was set up by Rajpal.
France retaliated back a
minute later and drew parity
when Soyez encashed on a defensive lapse by Sarvanjit Singh
and Danish Mujtaba to put the
ball into the net past Indian goalkeeper Bharat Chetri.
India got its lead back in the
12th minute through Sandeep, who
sounded the board with a fierce
drag-flick from the team's first
penalty corner, earned after Amir

was blocked inside the circle by
French defender Thibaunt Blondel.
In the second half, a brilliant
Soyes made it 2-2 for the hosts
in the 51st minute after wrong
footing Sandeep. It was rollercoaster of a match which saw
pendulum swinging from one
side to the another till the very
last minute.
With five minutes from the end,
India took the lead again after
Sandeep converted his and the
team's second set piece of the day,
only to see France claw its way
back into the match through Soyez,
who scored his hat-trick in the 68th
minute from a shot corner
But Rajpal broke the hearts
of the home team when he
found the match winner seconds
from the hooter.

ting conditions at the Galle International Stadium to take control of the match.
It has been a miserable outing
so far for the Indians with a depleted
bowling attack struggling to make
any impact on the Sri Lankan batsmen who scored at a brisk pace
under overcast conditions.
India removed Sangakkara
early in the final session, when
he holed out to Sachin Tendulkar
off part-timer Virender Sehwag.
Tillakaratne Dilshan (25) was the
only other Sri Lankan batsman
to lose his wicket when he was
dismissed by Abhimanyu
Mithun.
Sangaakkara's 103 came from

145 balls with the help of 12
fours and it was his fourth century against India. He also went
p a s t We s t I n d i a n G o rd o n
Greenidge and Englishman Colin
Cowdrey to become the 23rd
most prolific batsman.
The Indian attack without
strike bowler Zaheer Khan and
S Sreesanth due to injuries, was
at the receiving end of a solid
Sri Lankan batting display and
went wicketless in the whole of
the extended second session.
Sri Lanka 1st Innings: 256 for
two in 68 overs (Tharanga
Paranavitana 110 batting, Kumar
Sangakkar 103, Abhimanyu
Mithun 1/41).

Veteran off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has invited India orthopaedic surgeon and former
medical consultant to the Sri
Lankan team Mandeep Singh
Dhillon to witness his swansong
Test against India in Galle.
Dhillon, who assisted Muralitharan in clearing his controversial bowling action, is
among the several close friends
who have been invited by the
spin wizard to attend the special
ceremony marking the end of
his Test career on the final day
of the ongoing Test.
Dhillon had designed the special brace for Muralitharan when
his case was presented to the
ICC in 2003-04 after chucking
allegations.
Doubts about Muralitharan's
bowling action were cleared
when the off-spinner testified
with the brace on his arm.
"After moving to Apollo Hospital in Colombo in January 2003,
I was associated with the Sri
Lankan Cricket team for twoand-a half years as a Sports Injury
consultant and my services were
sought to verify Muralitharan's
bowling action," Dhillion said.

HI, Sports Ministry
on collision course
PTI
NEW DELHI, JULY 19

The government and Hockey
India headed for a showdown
over interim president Vidya
Stokes' eligibility to contest the
upcoming elections with the
Sports Ministry saying that she
was overage while the veteran
administrator insisting that such
restrictions were not binding
on the sport body.
Stokes' candidature came
under scanner after the Sports
Ministry today made it clear that
the ‘No Objection’ given to the
July 28 polls was conditional on
abiding the recent age limitation
guidelines of the government.
"The age restriction with regard
to the President, Secretary General
and Treasurer shall be applicable
in relation to the present elections,"
government observer S K Mendiratta said in a letter to Returning
Officer Justice R C Chopra.
An angry Stokes promptly hit

Jones stripped
of Father of the
Year award
AGENCIES
LONDON, JULY 19

Dean Jones' admission of fathering a child outside his marriage
has cost him the Victorian Father
of the Year title, which the former Australian cricketer won in
2007.
Jones was stripped of the title
following his recent shocking revelation that he had an affair for
nine years with Sydney flight attendant Kerri-Anne Hamilton and
has had a child with her, which
he is believed to have never seen.
Father of the Year Council
president Don Parsons said they
decided to revoke the award
after the 49-year-old cricketer
openly admitted of having a
child outside his marriage.

back, saying that the Hockey
India has it own Constitution
and election guidelines and even
threatened to take legal recourse in case of any interference from the Sports Ministry.
"We are not in agreement
with the views as expressed in
the letter by Mendiratta as we
are a Society formed under the
Society's Registration Act, 1860
and hence having our own Constitution and Election Guidelines
on the basis of which the elections are being held.
"In view of the same, we
kindly request you to conduct
the election in accordance with
the Constitution and Election
Bye-laws of Hockey India. And
in case GOI MYAS initiates any
action against our Election then
we shall invoke legal remedies
as will be adviced," she said in
a counter letter to Chopra.
Stokes, who earlier held the
post of Indian Women's Hockey

Federation, is above 70 now and
as per the government guidelines
no official who is 70 or above is
eligible to contest the elections.
Former India captain Pargat
Singh has also filed nominations
for the HI president's post.
The government, however,
clarified that the guideline pertaining to tenure limitation would
not apply as it is the first poll of
office bearers of Hockey India.
"Obviously, the restriction relating to number of terms of office would not apply in the case
of the present election, this
being the first election of office
bearers of Hockey India," Mendiratta wrote in his letter.
The government observer
also said that age declarations
of the candidates running for
posts of Hockey India president,
secretary and treasurer will be
thoroughly checked during the
scrutiny of nominations tomorrow.

Shoaib Malik to
replace Afridi
AGENCIES
KARACHI, JULY 19

Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik is set
to replace outgoing
skipper Shahid Afridi
in the playing line-up
for his team's second
and final Test against
Australia at Headingley.
Sources in the team management said Malik has managed
to convince officials that he can
contribute to the team's cause
as Pakistan looks to square the
two-match Test series after suffering a crushing 150-run defeat
at the hands of the Aussies at
Lord's last week.

Malik, one of the seniormost players in the
Pakistan team following the exit of experienced batsmen like
Mohammad Yousuf
and Younis Khan, was
dropped from the playing eleven for the
opening Test after the
team management found he was
not showing seriousness in practice sessions.
The presence of his wife Sania
Mirza, the Indian tennis starlet,
was believed to be the major
reason why the Pakistan team
management decided that Malik
was too distracted to give his
best in the opening Test.

Pg 18

Yuvi under I-T
scanner for
IPL earnings

AGENCIES
CHANDIGARH, JULY 19

The central excise department,
Chandigarh region, will soon
issue notices to four cricket players, including Yuvraj Singh, for
payment of Rs 1.17 crore as service tax on the income from the
first and the second IPL seasons.
"Demand notices to four players including Yuvraj Singh, VRV
Singh, Sunny Sohal and Uday
Kaul playing for Kings XI Punjab
franchise will be issued by either
July end or first week of August
for the payment of service tax,"
an official of the Central Excise
Department, who is involved in
investigating the IPL case, said
here.
A decision to raise tax demand from cricket players follows the non-disclosure of
breakup of earnings by players
from IPL matches.
"These players have not declared about how much they
earned from endorsements
and how much they earned
from playing matches even
after notices were serviced to
them. But now we have decided to levy tax on income,
whether it is match fees,
earned by players from IPL-I
and II season after assessing
their income on individual
basis," he said.
The department has assessed
service tax amounting to Rs
96.43 lakh on income of Yuvraj
Singh, Rs 11.33 lakh on VRV
Singh and Rs 4.53 lakh each on
Sunny Sohal and Uday Kaul for
first and the second IPL season.
According to the official, Yuvraj Singh claimed earning of
Rs 4.25 crore while VRV Singh,
Uday Kaul and Sunny Sohal got
Rs 50 lakh, Rs 20 lakh and Rs
20 lakh respectively from the
first season of IPL.
"For calculating the service

tax, the income in the second
season is considered the same
as that in the first season," he
informed.
In February this year, the department served notices to
these players seeking details regarding total payment and the
breakup indicating money received from sponsorships and
earnings as match fees.
It had also demanded a copy
of the agreement signed by the
players with their franchise
owner, total payment received
from the owners, service tax
registration number if obtained,
details of service tax paid, copies
of service tax returns if filed and
complete books of accounts and
balance sheet.
The department again sent
reminders to these players in
April and June.
However, only three players,
including Yuvraj Singh, VRV
Singh and Uday Kaul, replied to
the central excise department
notices, saying that they received only match fees, hence
no service tax was applicable
on their income.